US President Joe Biden and other leaders expressed their concerns to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Canada’s assumptions and claims about Khalistani separatist-terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder during the September New Delhi G20 Summit, according to reports by Financial Times and India Today.
Separate reports by several media outlets said that the Canadian delegation led by their Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wanted to go public with these claims but his pleas were met with reluctance. Trudeau wanted to go public with the claims shortly after he raised the issue with several members of the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing network that includes the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in June.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Justin Trudeau attended the G20 Summit and also met on the sidelines of the summit for a bilateral where the Prime Minister told the Canadian leader of the problems faced by the Indian diaspora and Hindus due to Khalistani actions and highlighted that the separatist movement is connected to drug and human trafficking networks which have the potential of becoming a serious concern for Canada in the future.
Trudeau justified his government’s stance by saying that actions of a few do not define Canada but shortly after on September 18, he took a series of steps which has brought Ottawa-New Delhi relationship to a new low over the sheltering of the Khalistani separatist terrorist by the Canadian government.
Canada then claimed that India played a role in the death of the separatist leader. The claims were made in the Canadian House of Commons, the lower house of Canada’s bicameral parliament, by Prime Minister Trudeau himself. Canada and India also expelled senior diplomats of each other’s nations, indicating a further downgrade in ties.
“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijar. Last week at the G20, I brought them personally and directly to Prime Minister Modi in no uncertain terms. Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau claimed while addressing the House of Commons.
India responded by saying that the claims made by the Canadian Prime Minister are “motivated” and “absurd”.
“We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law. Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said in a release.
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