Canadian police have arrested three men suspected of involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a crime that occurred in June last year in the country and which Ottawa attributed to the Indian government.
According to information from Canadian public broadcaster CBC, documents filed this Friday (3) in a court in Surrey, a city located in the province of British Columbia where Nijjar was shot dead outside a temple, indicate that the suspects, Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpreet Singh and Karan Brar, all Indian citizens, were charged with aggravated murder and conspiracy.
“We are investigating their links, if any, with the Indian government,” Mandeep Mooker, superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said at a news conference.
The CBC investigation showed that they were part of a group of hired killers with possible participation in three other murders in Canada, including that of an 11-year-old boy in Edmonton.
Nijjar supported the creation of an independent Sikh country, Khalistan, in the Indian state of Punjab, and had been classified as terrorist by New Delhi.
In September last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of involvement in the murder, which led to the expulsion of diplomats from both sides.