Exactly three months after the killing, on June 18, of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani extremist, the ‘chief’ of the Khalistan Tiger Force, and the head of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara at Surrey, Vancouver, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at an Emergency Session of Parliament that there were “credible allegations” of the involvement of “Indian agents” in Nijjar’s death, and ordered the expulsion of a senior Indian diplomat for his purported role in the ‘assassination’.
Critically, Trudeau spoke of ‘credible allegations’, not ‘credible evidence.’ In three long months, no public disclosures by Canadian agencies have been made regarding the investigation into the killing, and there is no publicly available evidence of any significant progress in the case, though the Prime Minister’s statement is now likely to colour further investigations.
Significantly this allegation, summarily dismissed by India with a brief remark rejecting “any attempts to connect Government of India to such developments”, came after Trudeau’s repeated humiliation at the G-20 Summit (September 9-10). Trudeau received a widely publicised dressing down from Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding “continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada” on the sidelines of the Summit. Thereafter, when Trudeau was forced into an unplanned extension of his visit for nearly two days after the Summit concluded, due to technical difficulties in his plane and after he rebuffed an offer of help, Trudeau was left to his own devices by Indian authorities.
Shortly thereafter, Canada announced the ‘postponement’ of a trade mission to India, scheduled for October 2023, even as India announced the suspension of ongoing talks on a Free Trade Agreement. The ‘credible allegations’ appear to be the next stage in an increasingly personalized conflict between Trudeau and Modi.
This becomes abundantly clear in the statement by a former advisor to Trudeau, Jocelyn Coulon, who declared that Canada’s accusation would have "the effect of a bomb around the world". What is clear in this assertion is that these unsubstantiated allegations are part of an orchestrated smear campaign intended to bring odium upon India.
Coulson added that India would now join “the group of nations that assassinate political opponents” abroad, even as Saudi Arabia orchestrated the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in 2018. The sheer absurdity of this claim would be obvious to anyone familiar with both the Nijjar and Khashoggi cases. For one, the evidence in the Khashoggi case – including CCTV footage and audio recordings (the Consulate had been secretly bugged by Turkish authorities) documenting the torture and killing in the Saudi Consulate itself – was overwhelming. Second, Khashoggi was a dissident journalist, with no involvement with criminal activities or groups.
Nijjar, on the other hand, was an entirely different kettle of fish, and there are far more credible explanations for his killing in his vicious politics and criminal associations. Apart from several charges levelled by Indian authorities, of involvement in terrorist activities and targeted killings in Punjab, Nijjar has long been associated with the often-violent Gurudwara politics in Canada and is known to have linked up with gangster Arshdeep Singh aka Arsh Dalla, to provide the logistics and manpower for several ‘operations’ in Indian Punjab. Crucially, Nijjar had been engaged in a long-drawn confrontation with Ripudaman Singh Malik, the prime accused in the Kanishka Bombing of 1985, which killed 329 persons (as well as two luggage handlers in a second explosion in Japan). In recent years, Malik ‘turned’ and criticized the Khalistan movement in general, and accused Nijjar of “obviously working at the behest of some agencies of a foreign government” – a reference to Pakistan. On January 23, 2022, at the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey, Nijjar ranted against Malik for over an hour, describing him as a “Qaum da gaddaar” and an “agent”, adding that he should be “taught a lesson.” Malik was killed in a gang-style hit on June 22, 2022. Significantly, Malik also had gang affiliation, most prominently with Raminder Singh ‘Mindy’ Bhandher, a convicted murderer and gangster, who was also Malik’s witness in the Kanishka bombing trial.
It is useful, here, to recall that the allegation of Nijjar’s assassination by Indian agencies was part of a bouquet of conspiracy theories, along with the assassination of another two Khalistani extremists, Paramjit Singh Panjwar in Pakistan (May 6), and Avtar Singh Khanda (June 15) in the UK. The only one of these three cases that was actually and rigorously investigated is Khanda’s, where a Coroner’s inquiry found death by natural causes. While strident ‘credible allegations’ were made by the Khalistanis, as well as by Hindutva cheerleaders, that Khanda had been killed off by Indian agencies, this campaign quickly vanished once the Coroner’s findings were published. If ‘credible allegations’ – without any visible evidence – persist in the other two cases, this can only be attributed to the incompetence of the agencies in Pakistan and in Canada, or their intent to allow suspicions to flourish.
Given Nijjar’s background, there would be far more “credible allegations” of his having fallen victim to his own criminal associations, to his vicious Gurudwara politics, his organised criminal connections and, if Indian authorities are at all to be believed, his involvement in terrorist activities in Punjab.
(Edited version published in The Times of India, September 20, 2023)