Senior Canadian official says Indian cabinet minister ordered intelligence operations against Canadians

OTTAWA, Ont. (AP) — Canada’s deputy foreign minister confirmed reports Tuesday that Canada says an Indian cabinet minister and close adviser Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered to collect intelligence data operations directed against Canadians.

The Washington Post first reported that Canadian officials allege that Indian Home Secretary Amit Shah is behind a campaign of violence and intimidation against Sikh separatists in Canada.

Deputy Foreign Secretary David Morrison told members of parliament’s national security committee on Tuesday that he was the one who confirmed Shah’s name to the newspaper.

“A journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed that this was the person,” Morrison told the committee.

Morrison did not say how Canadian authorities knew about it.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a year ago that Canada had credible evidence of the involvement of agents of the Indian government the killing of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijar in British Columbia in June 2023.

Canadian authorities have repeatedly said they have provided evidence of this to Indian authorities.

Indian government officials have repeatedly denied that Canada provided evidence and called the allegations absurd. The Indian embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the allegations against Shah.

On October 14, Canada sent The High Commissioner of India a found five other diplomats who claimed they were persons of interest in multiple cases of coercion, intimidation and violence aimed at suppressing the campaign for an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan.

Canada is not the only such country blamed Indian officials about the preparation of a murder on someone else’s territory. This month, the US Department of Justice announced criminal charges against an Indian government official in connection with an alleged conspiracy to kill a Sikh separatist leader who lived in New York.

In a case announced by the Justice Department, Vikash Yadav, who authorities say led the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors previously said was intended to precede a series of other politically motivated killings. in the USA and Canada.

Natalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security adviser, told the committee on Tuesday that Canada has evidence that the Indian government initially collected information on Indian nationals and Canadians in Canada through diplomatic channels and proxies.

She said the information was passed on to the government in New Delhi, which is allegedly working with a criminal network linked to Lawrence Bishnoi.

Bishnoi is currently in jail in India, but Drouin said his extensive criminal network was linked to murders, planning murders, coercion and other violent crimes in Canada.

Before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued allegations that Indian diplomats were persons of interest in criminal investigations, Drouin said there were efforts to work with the Indian government to ensure accountability.

Drouin said there was a meeting with Modi’s national security adviser Ajit Doval two days earlier in Singapore.

Drouin said the decision to go public came when it became clear that the Indian government would not cooperate with Canada on the proposed liability measures.

This included asking India to waive diplomatic immunity for those concerned, including the High Commissioner in Ottawa. Drouin said that was not considered likely.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it took the extraordinary step of going public with ongoing investigations due to threats to public safety.

The Indian government denies the allegations and has responded by expelling six Canadian diplomats.

Nijar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after leaving the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born Canadian citizen, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader of what was left of the once-strong movement for an independent Sikh homeland.

Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Niiyar’s murder and are awaiting trial.

Drouin and Morrison were called as witnesses to the committee, along with the commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Mike Duhame, and the director of the Canadian Intelligence Service.