Indian nationals charged with murder of Sikh separatist leader in Canada
Kyiv • UNN
Three Indian nationals were arrested and charged with the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada, causing a serious diplomatic conflict between the two countries.
Three Indian citizens have been arrested and charged with the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada, which has caused a major diplomatic conflict between the two countries. This was reported by the BBC, according to UNN.
Details
Last June, 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead by masked gunmen in a busy parking lot in a Vancouver suburb.
The diplomatic dispute escalated after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the Indian government may have been involved in the murder.
New Delhi strongly denies the allegations.
The three suspects - 22-year-old Karan Brar, 22-year-old Kamal Preet Singh and 28-year-old Karan Preet Singh - lived in Edmonton, Alberta, where they were arrested. They were charged with first-degree murder, according to court records, as well as conspiracy to commit murder.
According to police, all of them had been in Canada for three to five years.
The police added that the investigation is ongoing, including "links to the Indian government.
The investigators worked with their colleagues in India, but, according to them, the cooperation was "quite difficult and complicated.
Police said that other people may have been involved in the killing, and that more arrests may be made as charges are filed. Nijjar was a Sikh separatist leader who publicly advocated for Khalistan, the creation of an independent Sikh homeland in the Punjab region of India.
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In the 1970s, Sikhs launched a separatist uprising in India that killed thousands of people before it was crushed the following decade. Since then, the movement has been largely confined to countries with large Sikh populations.
India has previously described Nijjar as a terrorist who led a militant separatist group, a charge that his supporters say is unfounded. They say he has received threats in the past because of his activism.
He was shot dead in a town about 30 km (18 miles) east of Vancouver on June 18 last year.
People close to him say that before his death, Canadian intelligence services warned him that he was on a "hit list" and that his life was in danger.
Three months after his murder, Trudeau, speaking in the House of Commons, said that Canada was looking into "credible allegations that potentially link" India to the killing.
Indian officials have strongly denied these accusations, accusing Canada of providing sanctuary to "Khalistani terrorists and extremists.
The dispute between the two countries led New Delhi to ask Ottawa to reduce the number of its representatives in India.
