A sign asking for an investigation on India's role in the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
Creditz: Reuters Photo
India has remained steadfast on not cooperating with the probe launched by Canada in connection with the killing of Khalistani Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the North American country on June 18.
New Delhi's envoy to Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, said that India would not help Canada in the probe unless it received "relevant and specific evidence" corroborating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegation.
Trudeau had on September 18 told the House of Commons – the lower house of the Canada's Parliament – that his government’s security agencies had been actively pursuing ‘credible allegations’ about ‘a potential link’ between New Delhi’s 'agents' and the killing of Nijjar.
New Delhi dismissed the allegation, but Trudeau's statement led to a diplomatic row between India and Canada, straining bilateral relations.
"We need relevant and specific evidence for us to help the Canadian authorities,” Verma said in an interview with Globe & Mail. The interview was taken a few days back but was published on Monday.
“Unless we see something relevant and specific, it would be extremely difficult for us to do anything to help the Canadian authorities," India's High Commissioner to Canada said.
Verma's comment came days after Canada's outgoing National Security Advisor Jody Thomas indicated that India had started cooperating with Canada in the probe into the killing of Nijjar.
"I wouldn’t describe them as not cooperating,” Thomas told CTV News when she was asked why India was not cooperating with the probe launched by Canada. Thomas had visited New Delhi several times to talk to officials of the Government of India about the killing of Nijjar before Trudeau made the statement in the House of Commons.
India had earlier questioned the credibility of the investigation launched by Canada and called it ‘tainted’– thus subtly rejecting calls by the United States and the United Kingdom to cooperate and participate in the probe.
Nijjar, a Khalistani Sikh extremist, was shot dead in the parking lot of a gurdwara in the British Columbia province on June 18.
The High Commissioner of India in Ottawa also said that New Delhi had not received any “specific or relevant information” from the Government of Canada.
Ottawa has been claiming that it had made New Delhi aware of its investigation into the allegation about the role of the agents of the Government of India in the killing of Nijjar.
The relations between New Delhi and Ottawa hit a new low after Trudeau went public with the allegation about India's role in the killing in Canada. Both sides expelled each other’s diplomats and issued tit-for-tat travel advisories. India called Canada a safe haven for terrorists and suspended issuing visas for Canadians. It, however, recently restarted issuing certain categories of visas. New Delhi also made Ottawa downsize its high commission in the national capital and its consulates in other cities, leading to the departure of 41 Canadian diplomats.
Nijjar was the commander of the Khalistan Tiger Force and one of India’s most wanted fugitive extremists.
US prosecutors alleged on November 29 that Nikhil Gupta, an Indian incarcerated in the Czech Republic since June, had been an associate of an official from an agency of the Government of India. The official supposedly engaged Gupta to hire a hitman to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of the secessionist organization Sikhs for Justice. In contrast to its response to accusations by Ottawa, New Delhi promptly initiated an investigation following the allegation from Washington DC.