Sikh assassinations: are the United States and Canada increasing pressure on India? | Political news

A year after the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a community shrine near Vancouver, a series of diplomatic and legal measures step up scrutiny of India's alleged role in suppressing Sikh separatist movements abroad by assassinations in the United States and Canada.

In Canada, an upcoming hearing in the Nijjar case on June 25 will give prosecutors another chance to present evidence to support their claims about India's involvement in the killing.

Meanwhile, Nikhil Gupta, suspected of being involved in a plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was extradited from the Czech Republic to the United States earlier this month.

Here's more on what Canada and the United States are doing and what it means for India:

Indian nationals Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh (left to right) charged with murder and conspiracy to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023. [IHIT/Handout via Reuters]
What is happening in Canada with the Nijjar affair?

Four Indian nationals were arrested in May this year following the deadly Nijjar shooting in June last year. The four men are Amandeep Singh, 22; Kamalpreet Singh, 22; Karan Brar, 22; and Karanpreet Singh, 28.

Sikh activists marked the first anniversary of Nijjar's death by staging a mock trial of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside the Indian consulate in downtown Vancouver. They carried an effigy of Modi in prison garb, asserting the Indian government's role in Nijjar's death.

Meanwhile, last week, the Canadian Parliament honored Nijjar on the anniversary of his assassination with a minute's silence, triggering an angry response from India. Nijjar, 45, was deemed a terrorist by the Indian government three years before his death.

Canada's Sikhs continue to hold non-binding referendums on creating a separate Sikh nation from the Indian state of Punjab, with the next vote scheduled for July 28 in Calgary, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The four men accused of involvement in Nijjar's murder will appear at a court hearing on June 25 in the city of Surrey.

How has the Nijjar affair strained India-Canada relations?

Nijjar was shot dead in front of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on June 18, 2023. Surrey has a large number of Sikhs, who make up 2% of the Canadian population.

Nijjar was associated with the Khalistan movement, an ethnoreligious movement that arose among Sikhs in India, who make up 2 percent of India's population but nearly 60 percent of the population of the northern state of Punjab.

Khalistan is the proposed name for a Sikh nation envisioned by some Sikhs, incorporating the state of Punjab as well as other Punjabi-speaking areas of northern India.

While the movement died out after a crescendo in India in the 1970s and early 1980s, due to repression by Indian forces and Hindu mobs, it has recently seen a resurgence among Sikhs in the diaspora.

In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada was investigating the possibility that the Indian government was involved in Nijjar's assassination. India has denied any involvement in Nijjar's death.

The incident strained relations between the two countries, with India withdrawing its diplomats from Canada and briefly suspending visas for Canadians. Trade negotiations between the nations have been deeply frozen since Trudeau's explosive allegations.

Last week, at the G7 conference in Italy, Modi and Trudeau shook hands, but it was unclear whether they discussed India's potential involvement in Nijjar's death.

Tensions are unlikely to ease anytime soon, especially as the Nijjar hearings are expected to reveal more about Canada's accusations against India. The Modi government has repeatedly accused Trudeau of pandering to Sikh separatists in seeking their votes, ignoring Indian national security concerns.

This criticism reappeared last week, after the Canadian Parliament's mark of respect for Nijjar. We have repeatedly stated that the activities of Khalistan are a matter of grave concern to us. We have repeatedly called on the Government of Canada to act. The political space given to anti-India extremist elements and those advocating violence must end and they must act, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

India says Canada has yet to provide it with clear evidence linking Nijjar's killing to Indian agents. New Delhi has insinuated that rivalry between criminal gangs in Canada could be behind the murder.

What is happening in the United States?

But Canada is not the only country where the actions of Indian security agencies abroad are under scrutiny.

The Czech Republic extradited Indian national Nikhil Gupta to the United States, where prosecutors accused him of being involved in a murder-for-hire plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

Gupta, 53, who was arrested last year in June by Czech authorities while traveling from India to Prague, arrived in the United States on June 14.

Just as in the Nijjar affair, the Indian government sought to dissociate itself from the conspiracy against Pannun. However, he said he would formally investigate security concerns raised by Washington.

Last month, Washington said it was satisfied so far with steps taken by India to ensure those responsible for alleged plots were held accountable, while adding that many steps still needed to be taken.

Gupta, who has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since arriving in the United States, pleaded not guilty on June 17.

What was the Gurpatwant Singh Pannun affair?

On November 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against Gupta, accusing him of working for the Indian government to carry out the planned assassination of Pannun, a U.S. citizen, in New York.

Federal prosecutors described Gupta as an associate of an Indian government agency employee identified only as CC-1, who previously worked with the Central Reserve Police Force, a top paramilitary force of the Indian government, says the indictment.

The indictment alleged that CC-1 directed the assassination plan from India and recruited Gupta around May 2023 to coordinate it.

Gupta, at the direction of CC-1, contacted a person he believed to be a criminal associate who might commit the murder, according to the indictment. But the person he contacted was, unbeknownst to Gupta, working confidentially for U.S. law enforcement.

That source in turn connected him with a hit man who was actually an undercover law enforcement agent working for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the indictment states.

Gupta agreed to pay the hitman $100,000 for killing Pannun, giving him an advance of $15,000 in cash in Manhattan around June 9, 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

If convicted, Gupta faces up to 20 years in prison.

The DEA, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is investigating the matter, according to a June 17 Department of Justice press release.

Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in his office on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 in New York [Ted Shaffrey/AP]
Are the tremors felt elsewhere?

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) recently published an article accusing Indian agents of harassing and threatening members of the Sikh diaspora in Australia, and linking these cases to Nijjar's assassination as well as the alleged plot in the United States. -United targeting Pannun.

The ABC previously reported that Australia had expelled an alleged nest of spies from India. Its reporting suggests that agents from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), the national intelligence agency, met with Sikh activists in Australia over Nijjar's death.

The ABC said YouTube blocked some of its broadcasts in India ahead of the country's general election. YouTube said the ban followed a confidential order under India's Information Technology Act, 2000.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who in May 2023 celebrated Modi in Australia, comparing his popularity to that of iconic singer Bruce Springsteen or to that of his government, did not comment on the ABC information.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/24/sikh-assassinations-are-the-us-and-canada-raising-the-heat-on-india The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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