Sat 23 September 2023:
As the United States pressured New Delhi to cooperate with an inquiry, Canada claims it gave evidence “many weeks ago” of alleged Indian security services involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist on its soil.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Ottawa has solid intelligence linking Indian operatives to the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, as new information in the case came to light.
Nijjar was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia in June and no arrests have been made.
Bloomberg News reported that Canadian officials shared communications and phone numbers with the Indian government that allegedly link Indian agents to Nijjar’s murder.
India has denied any information was officially shared, and described the accusations as “absurd”.
“No specific information has been shared by Canada on this case, either then or before or after,” said Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen confirmed “shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners” informed Trudeau of the possible involvement of Indian agents.
“There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this, and I think that’s as far as I’m comfortable going,” Cohen told CTV News in an interview to be aired on Sunday.
“If they [the allegations] prove to be true, it is a potentially very serious breach of the rules-based international order in which we like to function.”
The United States made clear it expected the Indian government to work with Canada.
“We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters. “It would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to see accountability.”
The Canadian government has amassed both human and signals intelligence in a months-long investigation into the Sikh separatist leader’s murder, CBC News reported.
The report said the intelligence included communications of Indian officials present in Canada, adding some of the information was provided by an unidentified ally in the Five Eyes alliance – an intelligence-sharing network that includes the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
However, Trudeau has not provided any details about what Canada’s spy agencies have collected, and his office has not confirmed or denied the CBC report.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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