May 4 :
From Vancouver, Canada — The shooting of a Sikh separatist in Vancouver last year has been connected to the Indian government, according to local media. Three men were arrested by Canadian police on May 3 in connection with this case.
A diplomatic crisis erupted between India and Canada following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's explicit linking of the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar to Indian intelligence.
In a ferocious response, India called the accusations "absurd" and momentarily limited Canadian visas and compelled Ottawa to remove ambassadors.
Reports from a western Canadian court indicate that the three men who were arrested on May 3 are facing accusations of first-degree murder and conspiracy, according to Canadian network CBC. On the day of Nijjar's death, they are alleged to have been involved as shooters, drivers, and spotters.
According to CBC, authorities are looking into three more homicides, one of which involved an 11-year-old kid in Edmonton. Reportedly, a press conference will be held by the police later on Friday.
Sikh nationalist Nijjar, who emigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015, wanted an independent Sikh state formed in India.
The Indian government sought him on suspicion of terrorism and murder plotting.
In June of last year, he was murdered in the parking lot of a Sikh temple close to Vancouver, British Columbia, by gunmen wearing masks.
Several months down the road, Trudeau fired an Indian envoy and stated that Canada had "credible allegations" connecting Indian intelligence to the murder, setting off the diplomatic tit-for-tat with New Delhi.
An American citizen of Indian descent who was living in the Czech Republic was indicted by the US Justice Department in November for allegedly planning a comparable assassination attempt in the US.
The involvement of an Indian government official in the planning was also mentioned in unsealed court documents by the prosecution.
The shocking claims surfaced following US President Joe Biden's unusual official visit to India, during which he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US is trying to forge deeper connections with India in response to China's rising influence.
The Washington Post reported this week that US intelligence services had determined that Samant Goel, India's top spy official at the time, gave his approval to the plot that took place on American soil.
About 2% of Canadians identify as Sikh, and among that demographic, there is a loud minority that wants to establish a separate state of Khalistan. There are around 770,000 Sikhs in Canada. In the 1980s, security forces in the Indian state of Punjab employed lethal force to quell an insurgency, effectively ending the Sikh separatist movement within the country.
