Ottawa: Canadian police have arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.
Nijjar, 45, was shot dead in June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. A few months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited evidence of Indian government involvement, prompting a diplomatic crisis with New Delhi.
A photo of Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen during a news conference providing an update from the Sikh community about Nijjar’s homicide.Credit: AP
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police named the three men as Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22 and Karan Brar, 22.
“We’re investigating their ties, if any, to the Indian government,” mounted police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker told a televised news conference.
The Indian mission in Ottawa did not respond to requests for comment.
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Nijjar was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India. The presence of Sikh separatist groups in Canada has long frustrated New Delhi, which had labelled Nijjar a “terrorist”.
Last week the White House expressed concern about the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in assassination plots in Canada and the United States.
Canadian police said they had worked with US law enforcement agencies, without giving additional details, and suggested more detentions might be coming.