On Friday in Surrey, a city in southwestern Canada, near Vancouver, police arrested three men suspected of killing the Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was assassinated last June in a much-discussed case that had given rise to a diplomatic crisis between Canada and India. For that murder, at the time, Canada had accused “agents of the Government of India”. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a supporter of the Sikh separatist movement, which calls for the foundation of a sovereign state called Khalistan in Punjab, an Indian region bordering Pakistan. The separatist movement, which India considers a threat to its national security, had previously been a source of tension between India and countries hosting large communities of Sikh people, including the Canada.
The three arrested men are called Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpreet Singh and Karan Brar: according to the police they acted on behalf of the Indian government and were involved in various capacities in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The police are also investigating their possible involvement in three other murders also committed in Canada, it is not clear whether linked to the Sikh separatist movement or not. Nothing else is known at the moment, but the police should provide further details in the next few hours.
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