Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday called on India to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader, in British Columbia and said Canada would not release its evidence.
Trudeau said on Monday that Ottawa had credible information linking “Indian government agents” to the murder of Nijjar in June, prompting an angry reaction from New Delhi. Nijjar, 45, was a Canadian citizen.
He said that the remarks made by him on Monday were made with the utmost seriousness, and that Canada has “credible information” on the involvement of Indian government agents in Nijjar’s killing.
“We’re not looking to provoke or cause problems. But we are unequivocal around the importance of the rule of law and unequivocal about the importance of protecting Canadians,” Trudeau told a news conference in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“That’s why we call upon the government of India to work with us to establish processes to discover and to uncover the truth of the matter.”
Trudeau sidestepped several questions about when Canada might release the evidence it had, saying merely that the decision to share the allegations had not been made lightly.
“As a country with a strong and independent justice system, we allow those justice processes to unfold themselves with the utmost integrity,” he said.
“In terms of safety in Canada and the safety of Canadians, we always take the safety of Canadians extremely seriously, whether at home or overseas, I can assure everyone that Canada is a safe country. I continue to call, for calm, and for Canadians to remain true to who we are, open, respectful, grounded in, respect and trust in our institutions and, our law enforcement and justice systems,” added Trudeau.
“There is no question, India is a country of growing importance and a country that we need to continue to work with not just in a region but around the world and we are not looking to provoke or cause problems but we are unequivocal about the importance of the rule of law and unequivocal about of the importance of protecting Canadians and standing up for values. That’s why, we call upon the govt of India to work with us to establish processes to uncover the truth of the matter and to allow justice and accountability to be served,” said Trudeau.
Tensions flared between India and Canada early this week following Trudeau’s explosive allegations of a ”potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on his country’s soil on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.
India angrily rejected the allegations as ”absurd” and ”motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.
On Thursday, India asked Canada to come down hard on terrorists and anti-India elements operating from its soil and suspended visa services for Canadians, as escalating tensions between the two nations over the killing of Nijjar pushed their ties to an all-time low.
India also asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic staff in the country, arguing that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in the mutual diplomatic presence. The size of Canadian diplomatic staff in India is larger than what New Delhi has in Canada.
With inputs from agencies
