International Desk, 19th September: A senior Indian diplomat has been expelled from Canada in response to “credible allegations” that the Indian government was involved in the assassination of Canadian citizen and Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The disclosure was made in Parliament by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said that these claims have been the subject of an active investigation by Canadian security authorities. Trudeau reaffirmed the commitment of his administration to bringing Nijjar’s killers to justice.
Two masked shooters shot and killed Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader in Surrey, British Columbia, in his truck in June. The sizeable Sikh population in Canada, which numbers in the hundreds of thousands, was startled and incensed by his murder.
Nijjar was previously listed as a terrorist threat by India due to his affiliation with a Sikh separatist movement.
The chief of the Indian intelligence service in Canada was discovered to be the diplomat who was expelled, according to Mélanie Joly, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs. Joly highlighted that Canada is dedicated to learning the truth about what led to Nijjar’s murder.