Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have been “provoked” to go public with the allegations against India, however, Trudeau was seen walking away as the Indian media confronted him at the UN over allegations regarding India's role in the killing of the Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey.Trudeau said that there were “credible allegations” of the Indian government being behind the killing of Hardeep. The developments mark a dramatic escalation of tensions between India and Canada that have been marked by frostiness for some months. Prime Minister Trudeau had a terse exchange with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit this month.
The Canadian Prime Minister told his country’s Parliament that he had raised the killing of Canadian national Hardeep Singh Nijjar with Prime Minister Modi. Nijjar, head of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Surrey, Canada, was killed on June 18 after being shot by unidentified assailants on the premises of the gurdwara. Nijjar was the chief of the separatist organisation Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).Trudeau suggested the killing had the imprint of the Indian government. “Over the past number of weeks Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” he said.Nijjar lived in the city of Surrey, about 30 km to the southeast of Vancouver, the largest city in the western Canadian province of British Columbia.He moved from Punjab to Canada in 1997, and initially worked there as a plumber. He also got married in Canada and had two sons. He had been the president of the Surrey gurdwara body since 2020.According to the Indian government, as the leader of the KTF, Nijjar was actively involved in the operationalisation and networking of the organisation, and the training and financing of its members.