‘Nothing Worth Investigating’: Jaishankar On Intel Shared By Canada In Nijjar Murder Case

External affairs minister S Jaishankar said Canadian investigators did not share anything with India that is worth investigating in connection with the murder of Khalistani separatist-terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

“We are open to investigating it, but to date, we have never received anything which is specific and worthy of being pursued by our investigative agencies,” S Jaishankar said while addressing an event on Monday in Mumbai.

Canadian authorities last week arrested four Indians and charged them with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was shot dead by unknown miscreants outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

Canada has claimed that Indian officials played an important role in the murder of Nijjar, who is a Canadian citizen. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year accused India of hatching the plot and murdering Nijjar in Canada, on Canadian soil.

People familiar with the developments told CNN-News18 that Nijjar’s murder was a case of gang war and any Indian involvement in his killing is unlikely. Rival groups may have been behind his murder as they did not benefit as much as Nijjar who is reported to have received drugs, weapons and money from Pakistan.

India on several occasions has intimated Canada that anti-Indian elements with designs to foment trouble in India and who are also involved in creating unrest in Punjab have found a breeding ground in the North American nation but the Canadian government has not taken any action so far.

Canadian political parties, like Trudeau’s Liberal Party and his ally New Democratic Party (NDP) chief Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal, have also not taken any action against Khalistanis who have also attacked members of the Indian diaspora, vandalised places of worship and also attacked Sikhs who do not subscribe to the Khalistani ideology.

India on several occasions have asked the US and Canada to consider the threat these groups pose to India’s sovereignty as well.

“We have issues with Canada and the US on providing space to Khalistani supporters,” he said.

“Many of these countries to varying degrees, you know, they give latitude in name of freedom of speech. We have an issue with that because we don’t think freedom of speech should extend to advocating and supporting separatism terrorism, extremism, violence,” Jaishankar said.

It should be noted that Khalistani separatists during so-called agitations have attacked Indian consulates and embassy buildings in the US and the UK.