The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested three men on Friday suspected of being part of a team that assassinated Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023, several media reported on Friday.
This affair plunged Canada and India into a serious diplomatic crisis last fall, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke of the involvement of the Indian government in the death of this separatist leader.
Three men were arrested and charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy in connection with the victim’s death, according to CBC, citing court documents. The federal police, who have been investigating this assassination for several months, are due to provide more details at a press conference on Friday.
The three people arrested allegedly played different roles — shooter, driver and lookout — on June 19, 2023, the day the Sikh leader was shot dead in the parking lot of the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.
Activist for the creation of a Sikh state known as Khalistan, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, arrived in Canada in 1997 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015. He was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged acts of terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. Accusations that he denied, according to the World Organization of Sikhs of Canada, a non-profit group which aims to defend the interests of Canadian Sikhs.
In September, Justin Trudeau publicly incriminated the Indian intelligence services in this affair; New Delhi immediately described these accusations as “absurd”. A month later, Ottawa was forced to repatriate several dozen diplomats based in India after New Delhi threatened to withdraw their diplomatic immunity.
American justice announced in November that it was prosecuting an Indian national, accusing him of having sponsored, at the instigation of a New Delhi agent, a plan to assassinate Mr. Pannun, founding lawyer of the American Sikhs organization. For Justice (SFJ). Canada is the country with the largest number of Sikhs outside of their home state of Punjab, India.