Canada says Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has ordered a campaign against Sikh separatists

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — A Canadian official said on Tuesday that Indian Home Secretary Amit Shah had ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence gathering. Sikh separatists in Canada.

Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison told members of the House National Security Committee that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations.

“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 Canada knew about Shah’s alleged involvement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a year ago that Canada had reliable evidence that agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of a Canadian Sikh activist 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 High Commissioner of India and five other diplomats, alleging that they were persons of interest in numerous 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. In mid-October, the United States Department of Justice announced criminal charges against an Indian government official in connection with an alleged malicious 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.

According to her, the information was passed on to the government in New Delhi, which allegedly cooperates with a criminal network associated with 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.

She said the decision to go public came when it became clear that the Indian government would not cooperate with Canada on the proposed accountability 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 in response expelled 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.