How Canada’s charge of India’s role in Nijjar killing has fallen flat

It’s been over six months since Canada’s Justin Trudeau accused the government of India of involvement in the fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistan terrorist. Now, it seems that one of Canada’s partners, New Zealand, who is part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, is questioning the evidence, or lack of it, in the matter.

New Zealand deputy prime minister Winston Peters commented on the Nijjar killing and Canada’s accusation of India’s involvement in it while he’s in New Delhi for a three-day visit.

What did he say? What’s his take on the matter? Where have investigations on the Nijjar killing reached? We break it down for you.

Doubts on Nijjar killing evidence

Winston Peters, who is also New Zealand’s foreign minister, has expressed scepticism about the evidence provided by Canada on the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar ’s killing, which took place in Surrey, BC, last June.

Following the murder, it had been reported that “shared intelligence among ‘Five Eyes’ partners” had led Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to make allegations against India. For the unaware, the ‘ Five Eyes ’, also known as FVEY, is an alliance comprising five intelligence agencies: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

But on Tuesday (12 March) while speaking to the Indian Express, Peters has questioned the lack of evidence pointing to India’s involvement in the matter.

When asked if Canada had shared information on the Nijjar murder, he told the daily, “Well, I wasn’t here, it was handled by the previous government. But look, sometimes when you’re hearing Five-Eyes information, you’re hearing it and saying nothing. It is coming past you. You don’t know the value or the quality of it, but you’re pleased to have it. You don’t know whether there is going to be substantial material value or nothing. But the very, very critical information that matters… This was mainly handled by the previous government.”

“As a trained lawyer, I look okay, so where’s the case? Where’s the evidence? Where’s the finding right here, right now? Well, there isn’t one,” he said.

This is the first time a Five-Eyes partner has openly questioned Canada’s claims regarding the Nijjar case. Moreover, it’s also the first time that New Zealand has spoken on the matter. Previously, when asked about the same, New Zealand’s former foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta last September had said, if the claims were proven true, that would be of serious concern”.

Five Eyes and the Nijjar killing

Back in September last year after Trudeau had made the allegation of India’s role in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen had in an interview to CTV News said that there was “shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners” that had prompted Trudeau’s offensive allegation about Indian agents’ involvement in the killing of the Khalistani terrorist in Canada.

Cohen had been quoted as telling CTV, “There was shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners that helped lead Canada to make the statements that the prime minister made.” However, when pressed on what kind of intelligence was shared, he refused to divulge more details.

However, this was a crucial point in the entire issue as it was the first admission by any US government official about the sharing of intelligence by Five Eyes partners with Canada even when there were multiple unofficial and non-official reports about the same.

Later, Australia’s domestic spy chief Mike Burgess, the director general of Australia Security Intelligence Organisation, had also added support to Canada by stating that there was “no reason to dispute” claims by Ottawa on the killing of Nijjar.

India stands firm in denial

When Trudeau first made the allegation against New Delhi, India firmly rejected the claims, calling them “absurd and motivated”. The allegations had also led to a deterioration in India-Canada ties — New Delhi suspended visa services and Canada withdrew 41 diplomats from the country.

When asked to comment on the Five Eyes report, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said, “I am not part of The Five Eyes.”

He had also said that the Indian side would take action if the Canadian side provided specific information concerning Khalistani leader Hardeep Nijjar’s killing. However, in the months following that no information has been shared with New Delhi on the matter and the investigations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police continue.

Nijjar killing and its investigations

Since the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, the Canadian authorities are yet to make any arrests in the case.

In fact, a few days ago, security footage had been made public purportedly showing the killers of slain pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar exiting the parking space of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in a silver Toyota Camry before they shot him dead outside the gurdwara in Surrey, Canada.

The footage released by CBC as part of a documentary showed Nijjar’s pickup truck and the sedan moving out from the parking lot parallel to each other before the sedan picked up pace and blocked Nijjar’s truck. The documentary claimed that the two killers came out of the sedan wearing masks and pumped bullets into Nijjar before fleeing in the car.

The documentary also features two witnesses, who were playing soccer in a field nearby when they heard the gunshots. One of the two, identified as Bhupinderjit Singh Sidhu, was quoted as saying, “We saw those two guys running. We started running towards … where the sound was coming from.”

Sidhu, as per the documentary, told his friend Malkit Singh to chase the men while he tried to help Nijjar. “I tried to press his chest and tried to shake him to see if he was breathing. But he was totally unconscious. He was not breathing.”

Meanwhile, Malkit Singh, who chased down the men, said he saw them getting into Toyota Camry and there were three others in the car.

With inputs from agencies