Three Indians have been charged with the brazen murder of a Sikh nationalist on Canadian soil, police said Friday, a killing that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed on “agents of the Indian government”, sparking a diplomatic row with New Delhi and leading to tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats from each country.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a news conference Friday that the three suspects were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of the Sikh nationalist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June. .
Police identified the three suspects as Karan Brar, 22; Kamalpreet Singh, 22; and Karampreet Singh, 28. They said the men had lived in Canada for three to five years but were not permanent residents of Canada.
“This investigation doesn’t stop here,” Superintendent Mandeep Mooker, head of the Mounties’ Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said at a news conference Friday. “We are aware that other individuals may have played a role in this homicide, and we remain committed to tracking down and arresting each of these individuals.”
Several other investigations are underway, including to explore any involvement of the Indian government in Mr. Nijjar’s murder, Assistant Commissioner David Teboul of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at the news conference.
He also said relations with Indian partners in the murder investigation had been difficult, but provided no further details. The Indian government has strongly denied this accusation.
Mr. Nijjar was a leader of the local Khalistan movement, which seeks to create a separate Sikh nation in India including the northern state of Punjab.
He was born in Punjab and moved to Canada in the warmth of India. crackdown on Sikh leaders in the 1990s, according to Indian media. He was the head of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, a city outside Vancouver that is home to one of the largest Sikh populations in Canada.
The Indian government labeled Mr. Nijjar a terrorist in 2020 and called for his arrest.
Mr. Nijjar was one of several members of the Sikh community alerted to death threats from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the federal New Democratic Party who represents a British Columbia district, testified last month at an inquiry into foreign interference that he had also been warned by police about potential threats to his life .
The public inquiry, which made his interim report Friday, was created last September after growing political pressure on Mr. Trudeau to investigate allegations that countries like China and India had interfered in Canadian elections.
The report reveals that Indian intelligence officials used proxies in Canada to influence communities and politicians, with a particular interest in the Khalistan movement.
The arrest of the men accused of committing Mr. Nijjar’s murder will bring little comfort to the Sikh community if Indian officials involved in the killing and other interference activities are not also held accountable, said Balpreet Singh Boparai, a Toronto-based lawyer with the World Sikh Organization of Canada.
“We just hope that Canada will have the courage to be transparent and identify the individuals who are behind this plot,” he said.
Aside from a map showing the getaway vehicle’s route and some grainy images of the attackers, police investigating Mr. Nijjar’s killing over the last year have released little information about their progress.
In December, sources who spoke to the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, said arrests were imminent, but that the intervening months had left some community members worried that the first anniversary of Mr. Nijjar’s death in June would proceed without resolution.
“We would not be here without the courage and bravery of the Sikh community,” said Mountie Homicide Investigator Superintendent Mandeep Mooker.
Mihika Agarwal contributed reporting from Surrey, British Columbia.
