Three men have been arrested and charged in Canada for allegedly murdering a prominent Sikh separatist, according to Canadian police \u2013 a death Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously linked to the Indian government, drawing vehement protests from New Delhi. <\/p>\n
The suspects were identified in court filings as Karanpreet Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, and Karan Brar. The men are accused of conspiring \u201cwith others to commit the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar,\u201d according to the filings. They are also charged on a second count for using a firearm \u201con or about June 18, 2023\u2026 to commit first-degree murder.\u201d <\/p>\n
All three suspects are Indian nationals and non-permanent residents of Canada, police said in a press briefing on Friday. Authorities are currently investigating if they have ties to the Indian government \u2013 the latest development in a long-running intrigue that has fueled diplomatic tension between Canada and India. <\/p>\n
Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was gunned down by masked men last June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. He was a prominent campaigner for a separate Sikh homeland out of India, which would be known as Khalistan and include parts of India\u2019s Punjab state. <\/p>\n
Last September, Trudeau said he had credible information linking the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar. The allegation outraged India, which has forcefully denied the claim, calling it \u201cabsurd and motivated.\u201d The diplomatic fallout saw tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats from both countries. <\/p>\n
Authorities did not specify who allegedly conspired with the accused but said there are separate investigations ongoing on Nijjar\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese efforts include investigating connections to the Government of India,\u201d Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul told a Friday press conference. <\/p>\n
Campaigning for the creation of Khalistan has long been outlawed in India, where painful memories of a deadly insurgency by some Sikh separatists continue to haunt many Indian citizens. But it garners a level of public sympathy among some in the Sikh diaspora overseas, where activists protected by free speech laws can more openly demand secession from India. <\/p>\n
Weeks after Trudeau\u2019s announcement, the United States accused an Indian government official of being involved in a conspiracy to kill another Sikh separatist, American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on US soil. A US indictment unsealed in November accused an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, of trying to kill Pannun, who is a wanted man in India and considered to be a terrorist by the government. <\/p>\n
US prosecutors say Gupta was acting on orders from an unnamed Indian government official. India\u2019s government has denied any involvement in the alleged plot to kill Pannun. <\/p>\n
Just one day after Nijjar was killed in Canada, US prosecutors say Gupta allegedly told an undercover law enforcement official posing as a hitman that Nijjar had also been one of his targets. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many targets,\u201d Gupta allegedly said. <\/p>\n
He commended Canadian law enforcement for its \u201cdedication to upholding justice by rigorously pursuing those responsible for these crimes\u201d in a statement, adding that \u201cwe, as a community, stand firm in demanding accountability and will continue to advocate for justice to ensure such reprehensible actions are addressed decisively.\u201d <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three men have been arrested and charged in Canada for allegedly murdering a prominent Sikh separatist, according to Canadian police \u2013 a death Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously linked to the Indian government, drawing vehement protests from New Delhi. The suspects were identified in court filings as Karanpreet Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, and Karan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}