Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted Wednesday that he had only intelligence and no “hard evidence” when he alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. last year.

Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions, Trudeau claimed that Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadians who disagreed with the government of Narendra Modi and passing it to the highest levels of the government. Indian government and criminal organizations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

“I was informed that there was intelligence from Canada, and perhaps from the Five Eyes allies, that showed quite clearly, incredibly clearly, that India was involved in this… Agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of a Canadian on Canadian soil,” he said.

He added that this was something his government must take extremely seriously.

Learn more: US, UK side with Canada in Nijjar probe, ask India to cooperate

The “Five Eyes” network is an intelligence alliance made up of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This includes both surveillance-based and electromagnetic intelligence (SIGINT).

“India had in fact done it, and we had reason to believe that they had done it,” Trudeau said, adding that his government’s immediate approach was to engage with the Indian government to work together on this subject to ensure that there is accountability.

Recalling the G20 summit hosted by India in September last year, he said it was a great moment for India and Canada “would have the opportunity to make it one very uncomfortable summit” for India if he made these allegations public.

“We chose not to do that. We chose to continue working behind the scenes to try to get India to cooperate with us,” he said.

Discussions with India

Trudeau said the Indian side asked for evidence “and our response was, well, that’s up to your security agencies.” But the Indian side insisted on the evidence. “And at that point it was mostly intelligence, not hard evidence. So we said, well, let’s work together and look at your security services and maybe we can get this done,” he said. he declared.

He said he met Prime Minister Modi after the end of the G20 summit in Delhi and shared that “we knew they were involved and expressed real concern about it.” He responded with the usual response from him, that we have people who are openly speaking out against the Indian government living in Canada who he would like to see stopped. Trudeau said he tried to explain that there is freedom of speech in Canada to criticize foreign governments or even to criticize a Canadian government.

“But as always, we will work with them on any evidence or concerns they may have regarding terrorism or incitement to hatred or anything that is clearly unacceptable,” he said.

“We have launched investigations. The Indian response to these allegations and to our investigations has been to redouble attacks on this government, attacks on the integrity of this government, attacks on Canada in general, but also to arbitrarily expel dozens of Canadian diplomats from India,” he said. said.

“This was a situation where we had clear, and certainly even clearer, indications that India had violated Canada’s sovereignty,” he said.

He alleged that Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadians who disagreed with the Modi government, passing that information to the highest levels of the Indian government and to criminal organizations like the Bishnoi gang.

“…The RCMP determined that this channel, or this sequence, this scheme needed to be disrupted and made public on Monday, as they did,” he said.

Findings from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Monday they have evidence that six Indian diplomats were involved in the alleged plot to assassinate Nijjar in June 2023.

The RCMP also alleged that the Bishnoi gang is linked to agents of the Indian government, which targets the South Asian community specifically “pro-Khalistani elements” in the country.

On this issue, India has strongly rejected attempts by Canadian authorities to link Indian agents to criminal gangs in Canada, with official sources in New Delhi even saying that Ottawa’s claim that it shared evidence with New Delhi in the Nijjar case was simply wrong.

The sources in New Delhi also rejected Trudeau’s previous allegations that India was engaging in activities including carrying out covert operations targeting Canadian nationals in his country.

India expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced the withdrawal of its high commissioner from Canada after rejecting Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to an investigation into Nijjar’s killing.

Nijjar was shot and killed in Surrey, British Columbia, in June of last year.