Brian McDonald
Canadian police said Friday they made three arrests in assassination of a Sikh separatist leader last June in suburban Vancouver, which became the center of a diplomatic dispute with India.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said three suspects have been arrested and charged with the murder of 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver. But he said police could not comment on the nature of the evidence or the motive.
“This matter is under active investigation,” Teboul said.
The three suspects are Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh and were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker.
“This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain committed to finding and arresting each of these individuals,” Mooker said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau triggered a diplomatic rivalry with India in September when he said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s murder. India has accused Nijjar of links to terrorism but has vehemently denied any involvement in the murder. Trudeau said at the G-20 in September that “any involvement by a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
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Canada recalled 41 of its 62 diplomats from India in October after the Indian government said it would revoke their diplomatic immunity. India visas suspended to Canadian citizens after the murder and issued a travel advice to Canada, citing security threats against its diplomats in that country.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken In September said of the growing tension between Canada and India: “We want to see accountability and it is important that the investigation runs its course and leads to that outcome.”
Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, was a plumber as well as a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan. But he denied accusations of links to terrorism.
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A bloody, decade-long Sikh insurgency rocked northern India in the 1970s and 1980s until it was crushed by a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.
The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power, but still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab as well as the sizable overseas Sikh diaspora. Although the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists were trying to return.
