A Canadian official has accused India's powerful Interior Minister Amit Shah of overseeing violence and threats against Sikh separatist activists in the North American nation, in the most direct complaint against a close relative ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
David Morrison, Canada's deputy foreign minister, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that he had confirmed the Shah's identity and alleged involvement to the Washington Post. The newspaper reported earlier this month that Shah had given the green light to intelligence missions and attacks in Canada.
The reporter called me and asked if it was that person, Morrison said. I confirmed that it was indeed this person, he added, without providing proof.
Morrison's allegations against Shah, who is seen as Modi's right-hand man, will further inflame tensions between Canada and India, who are embroiled in a dispute following the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver l 'last year.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were credible allegations of Indian involvement in Nijjar's death, causing an outcry in New Delhi.
Trudeau's national security and intelligence adviser Nathalie Drouin confirmed Tuesday that she had disclosed to the media that India was also linked to the murder of Sikh activist Sukhdool Singh Gill, who was shot dead in Winnipeg in September 2023.
The Indian government has been repeatedly accused of targeting foreign activists campaigning for an independent Khalistan in Punjab, a region divided between India and Pakistan during the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
The United States this month accused an Indian government official of leading a foiled plot to assassinate a Sikh activist abroad, which the Financial Times confirmed last year was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for the U.S.-based group Sikhs for Justice.
New Delhi considers these Sikh separatists terrorists and has rejected allegations of its involvement in Nijjar's murder and the attempt on Pannun's life.
Canada this month expelled the country's top Indian diplomat and five other officials, accusing them of being involved in criminal activity linked to Nijjar's death and saying New Delhi had refused to cooperate with its investigations.
India's home and foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
But the Foreign Ministry had previously called Canada's expulsion of its envoys baseless and completely unacceptable, and responded by ordering six Canadian diplomats to leave the country, including Ottawa's deputy high commissioner.
Shah, who is widely seen in India as a capable political operative and a feared henchman of Modis, has known the prime minister since the 1980s, when he worked for the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the party's parent organization in power, Bharatiya Janata.
Both men rose to power in their home state of Gujarat, where Modi was chief minister. But their tenure in the state was marred by communal riots in the early 2000s, during which more than 1,000 Muslims were killed.
Modi was accused of condoning the violence, but was later exonerated by the country's Supreme Court.
In 2010, Shah was arrested and charged with murder in connection with extrajudicial killings, which he denied. He was later released by India's top court for lack of evidence.
Shah remained one of Modi's closest advisors and is considered to have been behind some of the BJP government's most controversial policies, including the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special autonomy status, the India's only Muslim-majority state.
