Canadian police have arrested three men suspected of being part of a group that killed Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the country’s west almost a year ago.
The case plunged Canada and India into a serious diplomatic crisis last fall after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested the Indian government was involved in the separatist leader’s death. Three Indians, two aged 22 and one aged 28, were arrested on Friday morning and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy in connection with Nijjar’s death. They were arrested in western Canada by Edmonton police and are being held pending further proceedings. All had been in Canada for between three and five years, police said at a news conference.
(read more below the preview)
The three suspects are believed to have played different roles – shooter, driver and lookout – on June 18, 2023, the day the Sikh leader was shot dead in the parking lot of the Sikh temple he led in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a campaigner for the creation of a Sikh state of Khalistan who arrived in Canada in 1997 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015, was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged acts of terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. He denied the allegations.
