Canadian police on Friday arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government. Royal Canadian Mounted Police named the three men as Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karan Brar, 22.
Najjar, 45, was shot dead in June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. A few months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited evidence of Indian government involvement, prompting a diplomatic crisis with New Delhi.
They have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, according to court documents. Police said that none of the suspects were known to them earlier and they were investigating their possible ties to the Indian government.
They were living as non-permanent residents in Alberta for three to five years, said Superintendent Mandeep Mooker, who leads the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. The police have also released their photos.
All of them were arrested in the city of Edmonton in Alberta on Friday, police said. They are due to arrive in British Columbia by Monday.
The murder remains “very much under active investigation,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Assistant Commissioner David Teboul told a press conference on Friday.
“We welcome the arrests but this does lead to a lot more questions,” said Balpreet Singh, legal counsel and spokesperson for the Canada-based World Sikh Organization advocacy group.
“There are separate and distinct investigations ongoing into these matters, certainly not limited to the involvement of the people arrested today, and these efforts include investigating connections to the government of India,” CTV News quoted him as saying.
“Those who have been arrested are part of a hit squad but it’s clear that they were directed,” he said by phone.
Canada had been pressing India to cooperate in its investigation. Last November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder on U.S. soil of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada.
“While today’s action … is a step forward, it only scratches the surface,” Pannun said in a statement, calling for action to “dismantle the networks that enable and perpetuate such crimes against Canadians on Canadian soil”.
