Hardeep Singh Nijjar case: Canada 'used' US intelligence on India's role

New Delhi, September 24

Information provided by US spy agencies to Canada helped it develop the intelligence that enabled Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to allege a “potential Indian link” in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey on June 18, reported the US media.

Further, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) visited several Sikh leaders in the US and warned them that their lives were also at risk following the killing, as per a report.

A political activist, who is a coordinator for the Sikh American Caucus Committee, claimed he along with two other American Sikhs in California received calls and visits from the FBI after Nijjar’s killing. Another American Sikh linked to a nonprofit group said members of their community had received police warnings about potential threats.

After Nijjar’s death, US officials told their Canadian counterparts that Washington did not have advance information about the killing and if they had any, they would have passed it on to their Canadian counterparts under the “duty to warn” doctrine, reported New York Times quoting unnamed “allied officials”.

After Nijjar’s killing, the US intelligence agencies provided the Canadian Intelligence Security Service (CSIS) with “context” that helped it surmise that India was involved.

The contextual information about the killing was “shared deliberately” as part of a package of various intelligence streams gathered by US intelligence agencies and the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing project.

The reports said Canadian officials had told Nijjar that his life was under threat but had not told him he was the “target of an Indian government plot”.

The reports said the US routinely and automatically shared huge amounts of intercepted communications with its closest intelligence partners, including Canada. But the alleged “smoking gun” or intercepted communications of Indian diplomats in Canada indicating involvement in the plot was gathered by Canadian officials, allied officials said according to the report.

The US has asked India to cooperate in a Canadian probe while New Delhi has said it is engaged on the issue with partners, but Canada has not provided any specific evidence so far.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who acknowledged that the US had been consulting and coordinating very closely with the Canadians as it was worried about the implications of a transnational crime, said it was “important” for India to work with the Canadians on this investigation. He was closely reiterating Trudeau’s observations, who wanted India to “engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter”.

Trudeau has declined to release the specifics of the intelligence Canada has gathered about India.

(With agency inputs)

Info given as part of sharing pact

• US spy agencies gave Canadian counterparts with ‘context’ that helped it surmise India’s ‘involvement’ in Nijjar’s killing, say reports
• US was unaware of ‘plot’ until killing; if it had info in advance, it would been shared with Ottawa under agencies’ ‘duty to warn’ doctrine
• Info was ‘shared deliberately’ as part of package of various inputs gathered by US agencies and ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing project