A year after Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed outside a community shrine near Vancouver, a series of diplomatic and legal measures are sharpening scrutiny over India’s alleged role in suppressing Sikh separatist movements abroad. through murders in the United States and Canada.
In Canada, an upcoming hearing in the Nijjar case on June 25 will offer prosecutors a new opportunity to present evidence to support their claims about India’s involvement in the murder.
Meanwhile, Nikhil Gupta, suspected of being involved in a plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was extradited from the Czech Republic to the US earlier this month.
Here’s more about what Canada and the US are doing – and what it means for India:
What is happening in Canada with the Nijjar case?
Four Indian nationals were arrested in May this year in connection with the fatal shooting in Nijjar in June last year. The four men are Amandeep Singh, 22; Kamalpreet Singh, 22; Karan Brar, 22; and Karanpreet Singh, 28.
Sikh activists marked the first anniversary of Nijjar’s death by holding a mock trial of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside the Indian consulate in downtown Vancouver. They carried an effigy of Modi with prison stripes, asserting the Indian government’s role in Nijjar’s death.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Parliament last week honored Nijjar on the anniversary of his murder with a moment of silence – provoking an angry response from India. Nijjar, 45, was considered a terrorist by the Indian government three years before his death.
Sikhs in Canada continue to hold non-binding referendums on the creation of a separate Sikh nation from the Indian state of Punjab, with the next vote scheduled for July 28 in Calgary, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The four men accused of involvement in Nijjar’s murder will appear at a hearing on June 25 in the city of Surrey.
How has the Nijjar case damaged India-Canada ties?
Nijjar was shot to death outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, Canada’s British Columbia, on June 18, 2023. Surrey has a large number of Sikhs, who make up 2% of Canada’s population.
Nijjar has been associated with the Khalistan movement, an ethnoreligious movement that emerged among the Sikhs in India, who make up 2% of India’s population but nearly 60% of the population in the northern state of Punjab.
Khalistan is the proposed name for a Sikh nation imagined by some Sikhs, incorporating the state of Punjab as well as other Punjabi-speaking areas in northern India.
Although the movement waned after a crescendo in India in the 1970s and early 1980s due to repression by Indian forces and Hindu mobs, it has recently seen a resurgence among Sikhs in the diaspora.
In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada was investigating the possibility that the government of India was involved in Nijjar’s murder. India has rejected any involvement in Nijjar’s death.
The incident strained relations between the two countries, with India withdrawing its diplomats from Canada and briefly suspending visas for Canadians. Trade negotiations between the nations have been frozen since Trudeau’s bombshell allegations.
Last week, at the G7 conference in Italy, Modi and Trudeau shook hands, but it was unclear whether they discussed India’s potential involvement in Nijjar’s death.
Tensions are not likely to ease anytime soon, especially with hearings into the Nijjar case expected to reveal more about Canada’s accusations against India. The Modi government has repeatedly accused Trudeau of favoring Sikh separatists in seeking their votes, ignoring Indian national security concerns.
Such criticism arose again last week, following the Canadian Parliament’s sign of respect for Nijjar. “We have once again said that Khalistani activities are a matter of serious concern to us. We have repeatedly called on the Government of Canada to take action. The political space provided to anti-India extremist elements and those advocating violence must stop and they must act,” Indian Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
India claims that Canada has not yet provided it with any clear evidence linking Nijjar’s murder to Indian agents. New Delhi has hinted that a rivalry between criminal gangs in Canada may be behind the murder.
What is happening in the USA?
But Canada is not the only country where the actions of Indian security agencies abroad have come under scrutiny.
The Czech Republic has extradited Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta to the US, where prosecutors have accused him of involvement in a botched murder-for-hire plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Gupta, 53, who was arrested in June last year by Czech authorities while traveling from India to Prague, arrived in the US on June 14.
As in the Nijjar case, the Indian government sought to dissociate itself from the conspiracy against Pannun. However, it said it will formally investigate the security concerns raised by Washington.
Last month, Washington said it was satisfied so far with the steps taken by India to ensure accountability for the alleged plots, adding that many measures still needed to be taken.
Gupta, who has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrival in the US, pleaded not guilty on June 17.
What was the Gurpatwant Singh Pannun case?
On November 29, 2023, the US Department of Justice announced charges against Gupta, accusing him of working for the Indian government in carrying out the planned murder of Pannun, who is an American citizen, in New York.
Federal prosecutors described Gupta as an associate of an Indian government agency official identified only as “CC-1” who previously worked with the Central Reserve Police Force, a major Indian government paramilitary force, the indictment said.
The indictment alleged that CC-1 directed the assassination plot in India and recruited Gupta around May 2023 to coordinate it.
Gupta, at the direction of CC-1, contacted a person he believed to be a criminal associate who could commit the murder, the indictment alleged. But the person he reached out to, unbeknownst to Gupta, worked confidentially for U.S. law enforcement.
This source, in turn, connected him to a “killer” who was actually an undercover police officer working for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the indictment said.
Gupta agreed to pay the hitman $100,000 for killing Pannun, paying him a $15,000 cash advance in Manhattan on or about June 9, 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
If convicted, Gupta could face up to 20 years in prison.
The DEA, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), are investigating this case, according to a June 17 Department of Justice press release.
Are the tremors being felt elsewhere?
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) recently published an article accusing Indian agents of harassing and threatening members of the Sikh diaspora in Australia, and linking these cases to Nijjar’s murder, as well as the alleged US conspiracy against Pannun.
ABC had already reported that Australia expelled an alleged “nest of spies” from India. Their reports suggest that agents from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), the national intelligence agency, met with Sikh activists in Australia to discuss Nijjar’s death.
ABC said YouTube blocked some of its programs in India ahead of the country’s general elections. YouTube said the ban followed a “confidential” order that was under India’s Information Technology Act 2000.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – who in May 2023 celebrated Modi in Australia, comparing his popularity to that of iconic singer Bruce Springsteen – or his government did not comment on the ABC reports.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
