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A sign outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple is seen after the killing on its grounds in June 2023 of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
In a bombshell accusation on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told lawmakers that India was responsible for the murder of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia in June.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in his car near a Sikh temple, was a Canadian citizen.
The accusation is a bombshell. “This is like if the Saudis had killed [Jamal] Khashoggi in New York,” one former adviser to Trudeau’s government told us.
Sikhs are a religious minority that make up less than 2% of the Indian population. A militant wing of the community has long agitated for the creation of a Sikh state called Khalistan. In 1984 Sikh bodyguards assassinated India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Nijjar, a supporter of the Khalistan movement, was accused by New Delhi of involvement in terrorist acts in India.
Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India. Barely a week ago, Narendra Modi scolded Trudeau about anti-India protests by Canadian Sikhs. The Canadian prime minister clapped back that his government respects “freedom of expression” in a veiled rebuke of Modi’s own human rights record. Trudeau has also included India in a broader investigation of foreign meddling in Canada’s elections.
The revelation about the Nijjar killing comes at a time of rapidly worsening relations between Canada and India. Trudeau had reportedly raised the issue with Modi at last week’s G20 summit. Whatever answer he got in private was evidently unsatisfactory, and he decided to go public.
All of this puts the US in a tough spot: Washington has been cultivating India as a much-needed partner against China. But New Delhi has now allegedly murdered a Canadian citizen in Canada, one of the US’s closest allies. It’s a staggering violation of international law and norms, especially between two democracies. The Biden ardministration now has some tough choices to make.