Canada hints India's connection to Sikh leader murder

The Star

Canada said on Monday (Sept 18) it had credible information linking Indian government agents to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia in June.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Canada said on Monday it had credible information linking Indian government agents to the murder

00:07 of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia in June, an accusation India dismissed as

00:13 absurd and motivated.

00:15 Canada also said it had expelled a senior Indian intelligence official but gave no details.

00:21 The separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Najjar, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey,

00:27 British Columbia on June 18.

00:29 Najjar supported a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state and was

00:34 labelled a terrorist by India in 2020, according to Indian media.

00:40 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday did not directly accuse India of being

00:45 involved.

00:46 However, he did say his country's security agencies had been pursuing allegations of

00:51 links between Najjar's death and India's government.

00:55 "Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian

01:01 soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.

01:07 It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies

01:14 conduct themselves.

01:17 As you would expect, we've been working closely and coordinating with our allies on this very

01:23 serious matter."

01:25 Muninder Singh, director of the Canadian Sikh Coalition, said Monday his community wanted

01:30 to see what Ottawa would do next.

01:32 "We have a mixed kind of emotion right now.

01:36 One is we're acknowledging that Canada has acknowledged India as an actor and done it

01:41 from Parliament.

01:42 And on the other side, we're wondering what the next steps are going to be as well.

01:44 So I think there's mixed feelings at the moment."

01:47 Canada has the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab in India.

01:52 It's also been the site of many demonstrations that have irked India.

01:56 Monday's announcement will likely further strain bilateral ties, with New Delhi already

02:01 unhappy that Canadian authorities did not crack down on Sikh protesters.

02:06 The two countries were earlier trying to hammer out a trade deal by the end of this year,

02:11 but have now frozen talks.

02:13 Canada gave few details, while India cited "certain political developments."

02:19 For more UN videos visit: www.un.org/webcast

02:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended