Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has blamed the apparent assassination on the Indian government, as assessment that has reportedly been backed by Canadian and US intelligence sources and has created a rupture in Ottawa’s relationship with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Pritpal Singh, a 69-year-old US citizen who serves as a coordinator for the American Sikh Caucus Committee, confirmed to the Guardian that he and two other associates were called by the FBI just days after the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Canadian citizen who was ambushed on 18 June just outside his place of worship in Surrey, British Columbia.
The FBI also warned another American named Amarjit Singh, a 70-year-old New York-based journalist and commentator who said he was first alerted of a possible threat against his life on 22 June.
Singh told the Guardian that he was contacted by the FBI as he was returning from a protest against Modi in Washington, during a state visit in which US president Joe Biden hailed the US-India relationship as “stronger, closer, and more dynamic than at any time in history”.
Nijjar, who was 45, was a leader in the Khalistan movement in Canada, which has called for the creation of an independent Sikh state in the Punjab region of India.
Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council, was one of five people – including Nijjar – who was warned by Canadian authorities in 2022 that their lives were at imminent risk.
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The FBI, which must warn citizens if they learn that their lives are in danger under a legal protection known as a “duty to warn”, initially told Singh that it believed his life was under threat because of unspecified intelligence
The FBI also warned another American named Amarjit Singh, a 70-year-old New York-based journalist and commentator who said he was first alerted of a possible threat against his life on 22 June
Amarjit Singh said he only decided to go public with his account after Trudeau revealed Canada’s conclusion about Nijjar’s murder
Media attention has focused largely on Trudeau’s accusation that India was behind the murder
But Canadian authorities are also facing questions about why more was not done to protect Nijjar
“We expect them to attack us in the media, or character assassination, so this was shocking
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