In a fresh twist in the investigation into the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canada’s former national security adviser (NSA) Jody Thomas testified.
That initial intelligence and police probe suggested the killing was a retaliation for the murder of Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was accused of involvement in the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing.
Thomas, who was NSA at the time Nijjar was gunned down in Surrey last year, appeared before Canada’s foreign interference inquiry and claimed that certain members of the Canadian Sikh community were not satisfied with the assessment that Nijjar’s killing was a tit-for-tat for Malik’s murder.
“It [Nijjar’s killing] was the second high-profile murder in the same gurdwara,” Thomas said. “Mr Malik’s murder had occurred almost exactly the year before. The initial hypothesis was that it was a retaliation. But the community was raising concern.”
Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Sikh activist acquitted in the 1985 Air India Kanishka terror bombing, was shot dead in Surrey on July 15, 2022. Malik’s death came after a public smear campaign against him by Nijjar, the leader of the Khalistan Tiger Force, who had labelled him a traitor and called for his social boycott.
However, as the investigation progressed, further intelligence indicated that Nijjar’s assassination might have been an extra-judicial killing. “Through very good intelligence and policing work, we learnt that there was a high probability that this was an extra-judicial killing,” Thomas stated.
In response to Malik’s killing in 2022, sources in Indian intelligence agencies told India Today that it was part of a broader conspiracy involving pro-separatist forces, possibly supported by Pakistan’s ISI. They also said that the role of Nijjar in the killing could not be ruled out.
Thomas’s testimony coincided with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appearance before the same commission, where he accused India of violating Canada’s sovereignty. In response, the Ministry of External Affairs stated again that Canada has not provided India any evidence of the allegations.
India has consistently criticised Trudeau’s government for its leniency towards Khalistan supporters in Canada. The tension between the two nations escalated last year after Trudeau’s explosive claim in parliament that Indian agents were involved in Nijjar’s death. India dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated.”
On Monday, Canada named India’s envoy to Ottawa among the “persons of interest” in the investigation into Nijjar’s killing, widening the diplomatic rift sparked by the murder. India termed allegations it was connected to the killing “preposterous” and a “strategy of smearing India for political gains”.
The fallout from the accusations has seen the expulsion of diplomats by both sides.