Montreal, Canada – Sikh leaders in North America have welcomed latest arrests within the killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, however allegations that the Indian authorities was concerned proceed to gas questions and unease.
Canadian police introduced late final week that three Indian nationals had been arrested in Canada for his or her involvement within the June killing of Nijjar, a distinguished Sikh group chief within the westernmost province of British Columbia.
Police added that their investigation into Nijjar’s taking pictures dying would proceed, together with whether or not “there are any ties to the federal government of India”.
Moninder Singh, a spokesman for the BC Gurdwaras Council, a coalition of Sikh temples within the province, informed Al Jazeera there was “some aid” that arrests had been made within the case.
However Singh, who knew Nijjar personally, mentioned the query of Indian state involvement is “looming” over the Sikh group, which numbers about 770,000 folks throughout Canada — the biggest Sikh diaspora outdoors India.
“The overseas interference is actual. The assassination plot is actual,” mentioned Singh, including that it’s crucial to resolve what India’s position has been.
“All of that must be uncovered,” he continued. “There [are] quite a few the explanation why it’s very, essential for public security in Canada, together with deterring India from finishing up this type of operation ever once more.”
Canada-India tensions
Tensions between Canada and India skyrocketed in September after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced that authorities had been investigating “credible allegations of a possible hyperlink” between Indian authorities brokers and Nijjar’s killing.
Nijjar was fatally shot on June 18, 2023, outdoors the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, a temple in Surrey, British Columbia, the place he served as president.
India vehemently denied the allegations that it was concerned, calling them “absurd”. It additionally accused Nijjar of being concerned in “terrorism” — a declare rejected by his supporters.
Nijjar had been a number one advocate in what is called the Khalistan motion, a Sikh marketing campaign for a sovereign state in India’s Punjab area.
Whereas largely dormant inside India itself, Sikh separatism is basically seen as a risk by the Indian authorities, which has urged Western nations to crack down on Khalistan motion leaders within the diaspora.
Canada has offered shelter to “Khalistani terrorists and extremists” who “proceed to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs mentioned because it rejected Trudeau’s allegations in September.
However Sikh leaders in Canada mentioned they’ve confronted threats for years, and so they accused the Indian authorities of making an attempt to silence them.
Nijjar’s killing amplified these longstanding tensions, and new studies have emerged of Indian officers’ involvement in different alleged plots to hurt distinguished Sikh leaders in Canada and america.
Experiences of threats
As an example, in late November, the US Division of Justice introduced costs towards a 52-year-old Indian nationwide, Nikhil Gupta, over a foiled try to assassinate Sikh American activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The plot to kill Pannun, one other Sikh separatist chief, was organised in coordination with an Indian authorities worker and others, in accordance with the Justice Division.
Final week, The Washington Submit reported that US intelligence companies decided that the operation to focus on Pannun was authorised by the then-head of India’s overseas intelligence company, referred to as the Analysis and Evaluation Wing or RAW.
The Indian authorities rejected these allegations as “unwarranted” and “unsubstantiated”, in accordance with media studies.
However rights teams have mentioned India “must do much more than problem denials” in such instances.
“India’s alleged involvement in assassination plots within the US and Canada suggests a brand new and infamous leap in extrajudicial killings,” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, mentioned in December.
Pritpal Singh, an activist and founding father of the American Sikh Caucus Committee, was among the many distinguished Sikh leaders who had been knowledgeable of threats towards them over the previous yr.
Brokers with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) visited Pritpal, who is predicated within the state of California, in June to warn him.
In an announcement to Al Jazeera this week, Pritpal mentioned he counseled “the unwavering dedication of Canadian and American regulation enforcement companies” of their investigations into Nijjar’s killing and the surveillance of Sikhs.
“The alleged involvement of the Indian authorities in these heinous acts is a blatant violation of worldwide norms and human rights. It’s wholly unacceptable for any authorities to have interaction in extrajudicial killings and suppress dissenting voices overseas,” he mentioned.
Pritpal additionally demanded accountability for threats towards Sikh activists. “We should insist on US justice towards these concerned in India’s alleged murder-for-hire scheme concentrating on Individuals on US soil,” he mentioned.
“It’s crucial that these instances are prosecuted on American soil by america Division of Justice to forestall these perpetrators from self-prosecuting.”
India hits out at Canada
Nonetheless, India has continued to disclaim any involvement within the alleged plots, whereas blasting Canada over its method to Nijjar’s killing particularly.
The Indian Excessive Fee in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s requests for touch upon the case.
After information broke on Friday that Canadian authorities had made arrests, the Indian exterior affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, mentioned the Canadian authorities had a “political compulsion” responsible India.
Talking to Indian information outlet The Financial Occasions this week, Jaishankar additionally accused Canada of “offering a haven to organised crime”.
“We’ve been repeatedly telling the Canadians that, if you happen to truly enable such forces to arrange store and create networks, that is going to hurt their very own society. However up to now, I don’t assume that recommendation has been effectively heeded,” the minister said.
Canadian authorities have rejected the concept they’ve allowed illegal exercise to proliferate. Specialists additionally argue that most of the people India considers “terrorists” should not violating any Canadian legal guidelines.
“Canada is a rule-of-law nation with a robust and unbiased justice system in addition to a basic dedication to defending all its residents,” Trudeau mentioned throughout a Sikh group occasion in Toronto on Saturday.
“I do know that many Canadians, significantly members of the Sikh group, are feeling uneasy and even perhaps frightened proper now. Nicely, each Canadian has the elemental proper to stay safely and free from discrimination and threats of violence in Canada,” Trudeau added.
An interesting dialog on the @EconomicTimes’ workplace. https://t.co/DO32w3inVW
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (Modi Ka Parivar) (@DrSJaishankar) May 6, 2024
Use of ‘proxies’
Final week, the pinnacle of a Canadian public inquiry into overseas interference additionally launched an interim report that accused Indian officers in addition to their proxies in Canada of participating in “a spread of actions that search to affect Canadian communities and politicians”.
This contains efforts to “align Canada’s place with India’s pursuits on key points, significantly with respect to how the Indian authorities perceives Canada-based supporters of an unbiased Sikh homeland”, Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue mentioned.
The report famous that India “doesn’t differentiate between lawful, pro-Khalistani political advocacy and the comparatively small Canada-based Khalistani violent extremism”.
Due to this fact, “it views anybody aligned with Khalistani separatism as a seditious risk to India”.
Hogue additionally discovered that Indian officers are more and more counting on Canadian and Canada-based proxies and their contacts to conduct overseas interference.
“This obfuscates any specific hyperlink between India and the overseas interference actions. Proxies liaise and work with Indian intelligence officers in India and in Canada, taking each specific and implicit path from them,” the report mentioned.
‘Galvanising’ Sikh communities
Finally, Sikh leaders have known as for a full investigation into all those that could also be concerned in threats towards members of their communities, together with Indian state officers.
“I can’t converse to the motivation of the Indian state whether it is confirmed that they’re behind these heinous assaults,” mentioned Kavneet Singh, chair of the board of the Sikh American Authorized Protection and Training Fund (SALDEF), a US-based civil rights group.
“However they’ve had an extended historical past of suppression of freedom of expression and concentrating on those that converse out in dissent.”
Kavneet informed Al Jazeera that the American Sikh group is advocating on the federal and state ranges “for improved laws to raised assist regulation enforcement perceive, id and prosecute” cases of transnational repression.
He added that, regardless of the threats, the Sikh group’s historical past “has not been one in every of dwelling in worry”.
As a substitute, “it’s one in every of understanding that there are potential threats, and it’s [one of] being vigilant,” Kavneet mentioned. “In reality, I feel that is truly galvanising the group and our diasporic allies.
“Whereas there could also be political variations amongst communities, finally we stand collectively when members of the group and/or our establishments are threatened by actors both overseas or home.”
Singh on the BC Gurdwaras Council echoed that sentiment, stressing that the Indian authorities is making an attempt to “silence” Sikh voices within the diaspora who’re advocating for a sovereign state.
Singh was amongst 5 Sikh leaders — together with Nijjar — who had been warned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s nationwide safety division in 2022 about threats towards their lives.
He informed Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the Canadian authorities informed him throughout the previous two months that the risk towards him “remains to be actual” and he ought to keep away from giant public gatherings.
“If we converse on this problem [Khalistan] and we’re going to steer the group on this problem within the diaspora, I feel these threats will at all times be there now. There’s no means that we will ever return,” he mentioned.
“When Hardeep’s assassination occurred, that actually set some readability in for a few of us that that is actual. That is the brand new actual for us and the brand new actuality, that this will occur at any time.”
