Canadian police said Friday they made three arrests in the Assassination of a Sikh separatist leader last June in suburban Vancouver, which had become the center of a diplomatic dispute with India.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner David Teboul said three suspects have been arrested and charged with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver. But he said police could not comment on the nature of the evidence or the motive.
“This matter is under active investigation,” Teboul said.
The three suspects are Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh and were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker.
“This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each of these individuals,” Mooker said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unleashed a diplomatic dispute 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 angrily denied his involvement in the murder. Trudeau said at the G-20 in September that “any involvement by a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
DON MACKINNON/AFP via Getty Images
Canada withdrew 41 of its 62 diplomats from India in October after the Indian government said it would revoke their diplomatic immunity. India suspended visas for Canadian citizens after the murder and issued a advisory trips for Canada, citing security threats against its diplomats there.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in September said of the growing tension between Canada and India: “We want there to be accountability, and it is important that the investigation takes its course and leads to that outcome.”
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.
fake images
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.