In the aftermath of the killing of Khalistani militant Hardeep Singh Nijjar, US intelligence agencies offered their Canadian counterparts “context that helped Canada conclude that India had been involved,” the New York Times reported on Sunday.Yet what appears to be the “smoking gun,” the purported intercepted communications of Indian diplomats in Canada indicating involvement in the plot, was gathered by Canadian officials, the unnamed officials told the paper.
Separately, a Sikh activist in the US claimed that he and two others involved in political organizing in California received calls and visits from the FBI after Nijjar was killed to warn them of threats to their lives.
“I was visited by two FBI special agents in late June who told me that they had received information that there was a threat against my life,” Pritpal Singh, coordinator for the American Sikh Caucus Committee told The Intercept. “They did not tell us specifically where the threat was coming from, but they said that I should be careful.”
The disclosure of US role in priming Ottawa in what are even now described by Canada’s Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau as “credible allegations” — without providing evidence — to New Delhi comes amid growing Khalistani activism in both countries, including attacks on the Indian consulate in San Francisco and public threats to lives of Indian diplomats, neither of which seem to bother the two allies.
Over the weekend, videos emerged of authorities in Canada taking down posters and hoardings outside Vancouver calling for the assassination of Indian diplomats posted in Canada. Even Canadian commentators have called out Trudeau for cosseting Khalistani separatists with an eye on their political support despite their history of violent activity, including intimidating moderate Sikhs.
Despite repeated reminders that he had not presented any evidence to back up his allegation of official Indian involvement, Trudeau, in a meeting with the New York Times publisher and editors following his engagements at UN, maintained that the most fitting resolution to the situation was seeing “a number of people thrown in jail, convicted” and “a series of lessons learned and changes made to the way the Indian government and the intelligence services operate.”
“Every ally I have spoken to, bar none, has been unequivocal that this sort of violation of a country’s sovereignty and of the rule of law is absolutely unacceptable,” the Canadian Prime Minister said, adding, “I think people are quietly waiting to see how things unfold. But standing up for the rule of law isn’t a momentary thing. It’s a process that happens over weeks and months.”
Several commentators have pointed out that Trudeau insinuated himself into the farm agitation in India with an eye on Sikh votes in Canada in what they say constitutes an interference in India’s internal affairs.