Nijjar killing: India cooperating with Canada, says Trudeau aide

NEW DELHI: India is cooperating with Canada in the probe into the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, top Canadian official said.

“I wouldn’t describe them (the Indians) as not cooperating. I think we’ve made advancements in that relationship,” Jody Thomas, Trudeau’s national security adviser, told CTV in an interview.

Diplomatic ties strained after Canadian PM Justin Trudeau alleged Indian involvement in the murder of Nijjar on Canadian soil. The Khalistani terrorist was show dead outside a gurdwara in Canada’s Surrey on June 18, 2023.

“Canada was actively pursuing credible allegations that Indian agents were potentially linked to the June 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen,” Trudeau had said.

India has rejected all allegations and called then ‘absurd and motivated’.

Last November, US authorities said they had thwarted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist in the United States.

“The information that they (the Americans) revealed supported our position and our assertions with India, and India is working with us … far more closely to resolve this,” Thomas told CTV in the interview published on Friday.

The acrimony has delayed discussions on a free-trade deal and threatened Canada’s plans to expand its influence in the Indo-Pacific region, where New Delhi’s cooperation is critical to efforts to check an increasingly assertive China.

“Our ability to function in the Indo Pacific does rely on having a healthy relationship with India. And I think that we are working back towards that,” Thomas said. Around 2 million Canadians, or 5% of the population, have Indian heritage.

Canada withdrew 41 diplomats from India after New Delhi in September asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence following Trudeau’s remarks.

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