A banner depicting the late Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar is displayed in front of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Surrey, British Columbia, on September 18, 2023.
Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP
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Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP
A banner depicting the late Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar is displayed in front of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Surrey, British Columbia, on September 18, 2023.
Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Canadian police said they arrested three suspects on Friday in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader last June that became the center of a diplomatic dispute with India, and that they are investigating possible links between the detainees and the Indian government.
Three Indian nationals in their 20s identified as Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, on Friday morning for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, by masked gunmen outside from Vancouver, police said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic row with India in September when he said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s murder.
India had accused Nijjar of having links to terrorism, but he angrily denied involvement in the murder. In response to the allegations, India told Canada last year to expel 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Tensions persist, but have since eased somewhat.
The three suspects had been living in Canada as non-permanent residents, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said at a news conference in Toronto on Friday.
“We are investigating whether there are links to the Indian government,” Mooker said, adding that this is an “ongoing investigation.”
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner David Teboul said Canadian authorities are talking to their counterparts in India. “I would characterize that collaboration as quite challenging,” he said. “It has been very difficult”.
The three men were expected to be transported to British Columbia on Monday to face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, was a plumber and also a leader of what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. But he had denied accusations of links to terrorism.
A bloody, decade-long Sikh insurgency in northern India shook India in the 1970s and 1980s, until it was crushed by a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.
The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power, but still has followers in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the considerable Sikh diaspora abroad. While the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists were trying to return.