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Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh chief in Surrey, B.C., was gunned down as he left his gurdwara on June 18.
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There’s “credible” proof that brokers of the Indian authorities had been behind the homicide of a Canadian citizen in June, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Monday within the Home of Commons.
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The RCMP’s Built-in Murder Investigation Workforce stated two heavy-set suspects are believed to have shot Nijjar earlier than fleeing in a getaway automobile pushed by a 3rd suspect.
The suspects stay at giant.
Right here’s what we learn about Nijjar and the killing.
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‘Credible’ intelligence allegedly hyperlinks Indian authorities to B.C. man’s slaying: PM
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Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar?
Nijjar served as president of the Sikh temple the place he was killed. He additionally labored as a plumber, in line with International Information.
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He got here to Canada in 1997, International reported, and claimed refugee standing, having used a false passport to enter the nation.
His refugee declare was reportedly rejected, however 11 days after that he married a lady who sponsored him for immigration. That, too, was rejected, though Nijjar known as himself a Canadian citizen. Trudeau referred to him as such within the Home of Commons on Monday.
Nijjar was a distinguished organizer locally of Sikhs in Canada who’ve been calling for a referendum on Khalistan, which goals to carve out a Sikh ethno-religious state in India’s Punjab area. He had been organizing an unofficial referendum among the many Sikh diaspora in Surrey.
“Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a task mannequin, a distinguished persona locally and for the advocacy of a separate Sikh state of Khalistan by a democratic strategy of referendum,” stated Jatinder Singh Grewal, an organizer with Sikhs for Justice. “He was a pillar in our neighborhood.”
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The Indian authorities had labelled Nijjar a terrorist, Grewal stated, and sought to have him extradited to India.
What’s Nijjar accused of by India?
In 2016, Indian authorities alleged he was linked to a 2007 bombing in Punjab.
“That is rubbish — all of the allegations. I’m residing right here 20 years, proper? Take a look at my document. There’s nothing. I’m a tough employee. I personal my very own enterprise within the plumbing (business),” Nijjar advised Postmedia on the time.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation issued a warrant for Nijjar, citing expenses of trying to trigger an explosion, making or preserving explosives with intent to hazard life or property and making or possessing explosives below suspicious circumstances.
An Interpol discover was additionally issued for Nijjar. He was accused of being the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Drive and a report within the Occasions of India claimed he was operating coaching camps close to Mission, B.C., to coach sympathizers to hold out terror assaults in India.
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Nijjar denied all of this. He wrote to Trudeau on the time, saying he was a peaceable activist and urging him to “dispel the Indian authorities’s fabricated, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated allegations towards me.”
There was additionally an try by Indian information shops to hyperlink Nijjar to the 2022 killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, a neighborhood chief in Surrey and acquitted Air India bombing suspect.
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What is understood about Nijjar’s homicide?
He was killed in June 2023. His lawyer, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, advised Postmedia that he had been advised just lately by CSIS that there have been threats towards his consumer’s life.
“He wasn’t nervous about his security. He was nervous about how we’d accomplish Khalistan and the way we’d accomplish the referendum,” Pannun stated.
Nijjar was fatally shot in his truck within the temple car parking zone.
Virtually instantly after the homicide, hypothesis started to floor that Nijjar had been killed by the Indian authorities. Police cautioned towards this, saying they had been following the proof.
On Monday, Trudeau stated that Canada now has “credible” info of a “potential hyperlink between brokers of the federal government of India” and the killing of Nijjar. He stated he introduced this to the eye of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was in India final week for a G20 assembly.
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