The tone is solemn and straightforward: Addressing "all Canadians" in Parliament after calling an emergency meeting of opposition leaders, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bluntly accused India of being responsible for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the leader of a Sikh temple shot dead in Surrey, a city in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia, on June 18, 2023.
Drawing on the work of Canadian security agencies in recent weeks, Trudeau declared on Monday, September 18, that there were "credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar". "Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty," he added. Moments later, the Canadian minister of foreign affairs office announced it was expelling Indian diplomat Pavan Kumar Rai, identified by them as the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's foreign intelligence agency, in Canada.
Trudeau explained that he had "personally and directly" raised this issue with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at the G20 summit held in New Delhi on September 9 and 10. He urged "in the strongest possible terms" the Indian government to cooperate in shedding light on the case, insisting that he intended "to hold perpetrators of this murder to account".
Nijjar, 45, campaigned for the creation of the free state of "Khalistan," with a Sikh majority, on the current territory of Punjab. In 2016, he sent a letter to Trudeau in which he claimed to have been unfairly targeted by New Delhi for his peaceful activities. "I have never believed in, supported or been involved with any violent activity," he wrote.
He was nonetheless considered a "terrorist" by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Indian government's counter-terrorism agency. Modi expressed his "strong concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada," according to a statement issued after his meeting with Trudeau at the G20. New Delhi suspects the Canadian government of turning a blind eye to the activities of radical Sikh nationalists who advocate the creation of an independent Sikh state.
Since the murder of Nijjar, relations between Canada and India have notoriously deteriorated, with Ottawa suspending negotiations underway since 2010, with a view to reaching a free trade agreement between the two countries. A few days before Trudeau's accusation, Federal Trade Minister Mary Ng had postponed, without explanation, a trade mission to Bombay scheduled for October 9. Alongside Canadian business leaders and provincial representatives, the minister was to help forge ties with the Canadians' Indian counterparts.
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