India-Canada news Highlights: US provided Canada intelligence on Nijjar's killing, reports New York Times

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday alleged that Ottawa had credible intelligence linking Indian agents to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Nijjar in Vancouver. India, however, dismissed the allegations as “absurd and motivated”.

This triggered diplomatic tensions between the two countries, with both New Delhi and Ottawa taking diplomatic steps and India suspending visa services to Canada.

Hardeep Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18.

When asked about Canada sharing any information in the case with India, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi said: "No specific information has been shared by Canada on this case, either then or before or after. We have, you know, as we have said, or I think we have made very clear, we are willing to look at any specific information."

"We have conveyed this to the Canadian side and made it clear to them that we are willing to look at any specific information that is provided to us. But so far we have not received any such specific information," MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in New Delhi.

A group of people on Sunday staged a protest against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Jantar Mantar here, accusing him of supporting Khalistani separatists.

The protesters led by United Hindu Front chief Jai Bhagwan Goyal also submitted to authorities a memorandum addressed to the prime ministers of Canada and India, the outfit said in a statement.

"Since several months, the Canadian prime minister has been openly supporting and protecting anti-India Khalistanis. Despite repeated objections from the Indian government, the Canadian prime minister has not responded," Goyal said.

"If the Canadian prime minister loves anti-India Khalistanis so much, why doesn't he give a part of Canada and create a new Khalistan nation? We will be the first to recognise it," Goyal said.

The relations between India and Canada have been strained with Trudeau's allegation against India in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. (PTI)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canada shared with India "many weeks ago" evidence that it may have been behind the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil and wants New Delhi to commit constructively with Ottawa to establish the facts in the "very serious matter."

Trudeau, however, did not elaborate on the evidence that he says has been shared with India.

"Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday with India. We did that many weeks ago...We hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter. That's important," he said on Friday in a press conference with the visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"And what we are asking is for India, to commit constructively with Canada to establish the facts on this situation. We're there to work with them. And we have been for weeks now," Trudeau said in response to a question.

PTI

Amid worsening bilateral ties with New Delhi in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, it is perhaps time for Canada to implement a ‘foreign policy reset’, shedding off its ‘middle-power approach’ and focussing more on ‘Indo-Pacific diplomacy’, Japan Times reported.

ANI

Indian and Canadian diplomats could meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to try to lower temperatures with a potential assist from Washington, said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute. Canada's delegation chair, Robert Rae, is delivering the country's remarks 10 spots after India.

FM S Jaishankar could also hold face-to-face meetings with other key partners to minimise the damage. Since arriving, he’s held chats with ministers from Australia, Japan and Britain.

AP

A Canadian official told The Associated Press that the allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada — including intelligence provided by a major ally. On Friday, the U.S. ambassador to Canada confirmed this, saying information shared by the intelligence-sharing ‘Five Eyes’ alliance helped link India to the assassination.

On the last day of the G20 summit, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau posed and smiled with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as world leaders paid respects at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. Behind the scenes though, tensions were high.

Trudeau skipped an official dinner hosted by the Indian president, and reportedly he was snubbed by PM Modi when he got a quick “pull aside” instead of a bilateral meeting. To make things worse, a flight snag saw him stranded in New Delhi for 36 hours. Finally back in Canada, Trudeau said he had raised the allegations with Modi at the G20.

AP

The Biden administration will likely try to stay out of the diplomatic dispute between Canada and India as much it can, aiming not to disrupt the progress it’s made in its relationship with Narendra Modi’s government, the founder of political strategy firm Signum Global Advisors says.

David Cohen, US Ambassador to Canada, in an interview with CTV News said that "shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners" had informed Trudeau of the possible involvement of Indian agents in the murder of a Canadian citizen in June.

"I will say this was a matter of shared intelligence information. There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this, and I think that's as far as I'm comfortable going," Cohen told CTV News.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday alleged that Ottawa had credible intelligence linking Indian agents to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Nijjar in Vancouver. India, however, dismissed the allegations as “absurd and motivated”.

This triggered diplomatic tensions between the two countries, with both New Delhi and Ottawa taking diplomatic steps and India suspending visa services to Canada.

Hardeep Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18.

Holding his own party-led government responsible for inaction against Khalistan extremists, Liberal party MP Chandra Arya on Sunday asserted that Hindu Canadians are fearful after the threats issued by extremist elements.

Speaking to CBC News, Chandra Arya said, “I am more worried about the consequence of what happened after the Prime Minister’s (Trudeau) statement. The concerns of the safety of Hindu Canadians here, Hindu Canadians are fearful”.

ANI

Amid the ongoing diplomatic stand-off between India and Canada, the Premier of British Columbia province, David Eby has said the federal government is “holding back” information on the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, CBC News reported on Saturday.

Eby was reported by CBC as saying that everything he knows about Nijjar's killing is "in the public realm," despite a briefing with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director that he described as frustrating because there wasn't more concrete information.

He added that Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc had reached out, "but there has not been good information sharing,” CBC News reported.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdul Momen while terming the diplomatic tensions between India and Canada “a sad episode” has expressed hope of it ending amicably.

Speaking to ANI, on the sidelines of the 78th UNGA session, Momen said, “I think it is very sad. I don't know the details of it, so I cannot make any comment. But we believe we are very proud of India because they don't do immature things. We have a very solid relationship with India and these are based on values and principles.”

“So this is a sad episode. I hope this would end up amicably,” he added.

India Canada news LIVE updates: Amid an escalating India-Canada diplomatic row, a top US diplomat in Canada, David Cohen, confirmed on Saturday the “shared intelligence among ‘Five Eyes’ partners” led Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make allegations against India in the killing of Khalistani militant Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Following Cohen's comments, The New York Times cited sources to report that The United States – one of the ‘Five Eyes’ nations – provided Canada with intelligence after Nijjar was gunned down in June near Vancouver.

The Canadian allegations made by Trudeau on Monday, which India angrily rejected as "absurd" and “motivated," have led to a fallout between the two nations – hitting the lowest in their relations in decades.

The Five Eyes, founded in 1941, is an intelligence alliance comprising nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US. These countries are parties to the multilateral UK-USA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.

India Canada news LIVE: India on Thursday bluntly told Canada to act against pro-Khalistan elements with links to organised crime that are targeting Indian diplomats, even as it said that Ottawa has not shared any specific information to back up their allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India Canada news LIVE updates: Canada on Monday expelled a top Indian diplomat amid probe into the killing of pro-Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on its soil. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau claimed ‘credible allegations of a potential link’ between agents of the Indian government and the killing of the Khalistani terrorist.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said in the Canadian parliament.

India Canada news LIVE: Canada has decided “to temporarily adjust staff presence in India” out of an “abundance of caution” to ensure the safety of diplomats amid heightened tensions between the two countries, a spokesperson for the North American country’s foreign ministry has said, citing threats received on social media.

India Canada news LIVE updates: David Cohen, US Ambassador to Canada, in an interview with CTV News said that "shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners" had informed Trudeau of the possible involvement of Indian agents in the murder of a Canadian citizen in June.

• "I will say this was a matter of shared intelligence information. There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this, and I think that's as far as I'm comfortable going," Cohen told CTV News.
• After Nijjar’s death, American officials told their Canadian counterparts that Washington had not had any advance information about the plot, and that if US officials had they would have immediately informed Ottawa under the intelligence agencies’ “duty to warn” doctrine, according to two allied officials, the newspaper reported.
• The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss what has become a diplomatic firestorm, said Canadian officials had offered a general warning to Nijjar but had not told him that he was the target of an Indian government plot, according to the report.
• Cohen told CTV that said that the US takes very seriously these allegations. “And, you know, if they prove to be true, it is a potentially very serious breach of the rules-based international order in which we like to function," he said in response to a question.

India Canada news LIVE updates: The US provided Canada with intelligence after the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, but communications intercepted by Ottawa were more definitive and led it to accuse India of orchestrating the plot, The New York Times has reported citing sources.

• The report came on Saturday as the top US diplomat in Canada confirmed that there was “shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners” that had prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s offensive allegation against India in the killing of a Khalistani extremist on Canadian soil.
• The allegations have infuriated India, which rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case. India also accused Canada of being a safe haven for terrorists.

India-Canada news LIVE: Even as he came under attack from pro-Khalistan elements, Chandra Arya, an MP from the ruling Liberal Party, once again stressed that the “fear” that Hindus in Canada feel is “real” after a video from the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ, asking them to leave the country.

In an interview with the outlet CBC News, he referred to commentator Andrew Coyne’s column in the daily, the Globe and Mail on Tuesday, in which he wrote, “The risk of ethnic and sectarian bloodshed in Canada is real.”

Arya said he feared the bloodshed Coyne talked about “is going to Hindu Canadians’ blood.” Arya was the first prominent Canadian politician to raise the matter of the threat to the community when he flagged it in a speech in the House of Commons.

Since then, he has been attacked by pro-Khalistan elements on social media, including, as has become the pattern, a number either pro-Pakistan or based there. “Since no action is being taken against the celebration of terrorism, praising of terrorists, they have got emboldened,” Arya said.

India Canada news LIVE updates: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday urged India to work with Canada in its investigation in the Nijjar killing case. “We want to see accountability, and it’s important that the investigation run its course and lead to that result,” he said.

Canada and India relations have been strained over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was shot on June 18 in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver

The Indian government, which denied involvement in the killing, has called Nijjar a terrorist and criticised Trudeau’s government for not doing more to combat “anti-India activities” within the Indian diaspora in Canada.

India Canada news LIVE updates: The Biden administration will likely try to stay out of the diplomatic dispute between Canada and India as much it can, aiming not to disrupt the progress it’s made in its relationship with Narendra Modi’s government, the founder of political strategy firm Signum Global Advisors says.

India Canada news LIVE updates: The relationship between Canada and India reached its lowest point in recent history when Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh separatist, in June in a Vancouver suburb. Both countries have expelled some top diplomats.

• India, which has called the allegations “absurd,” also has stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens and told Canada to reduce its diplomatic staff.
• Canada has yet to provide public evidence to back Trudeau’s allegations.
• Nijjar, a plumber who was born in India and became a Canadian citizen in 2007, had been wanted by India for years before he was gunned down in June outside the temple he led in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.

India Canada news LIVE updates: Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin has censured Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for alleging that India had links with the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and claimed that the Khalistani extremist “was not simply a plumber” and "he had blood on his hands".

Rubin, a senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute, also termed Trudeau's claims as “shameless” and “cynical”, urging the US not to play into the hands of people who are looking at the Khalistani movement as a movement for ego, profit and politics, news agency PTI reported.