Canadian police make arrests in prominent Sikh activist’s killing: Reports

Arrests in last year’s killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar set to fuel more diplomatic tensions between India and Canada.

Police in Canada have made arrests in the fatal 2023 shooting of prominent Sikh-Canadian activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, months after authorities accused Indian government agents of being involved in the killing, according to media reports.

Citing unnamed sources, CBC News first reported on Friday that Canadian police have arrested “members of an alleged hit squad investigators believe was tasked by the government of India” with killing Nijjar.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is expected to hold a news conference later on Friday.

Nijjar was fatally shot on June 18, 2023, outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a city in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia, spurring widespread condemnation.

A few months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country’s security agencies were investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and Nijjar’s killing.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said in an address to Canada’s Parliament in September of last year.

“In the strongest possible terms, I continue to urge the government of India to cooperate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter.”

His comments spurred a fierce response from India, which rejected the allegations as “absurd” and politically motivated. New Delhi also accused Canada of not doing enough to stem anti-India activism and “Sikh extremism”.

But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has long faced allegations of targeting political opponents,