OTTAWA: Canadian police charged three people on Friday with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia in June 2023, Canadian media said, citing court documents.

Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population.

The news broke days after the White House expressed concern about the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in assassination plots in Canada and the US.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the murder of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. New Delhi rejected Trudeau’s claim as “absurd.”

CTV and Global News first reported the news of those arrested on Friday, with the former saying all three were Indian nationals.

Neither the RCMP nor the Indian mission in Ottawa were immediately available for comment.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc did not directly confirm the arrests but told reporters the probe into Nijjar’s murder was “still an active police operation”.

The Canadian Broadc­asting Corporation earlier cited a source saying investigators had identified the suspects in Canada some months ago and had been keeping them under tight surveillance.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024