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Canadian Police Arrest Three over the Killing of a Sikh Separatist That Sparked a Diplomatic Spat with India

Vancouver, British Columbia ( AP )- American authorities said they were looking into possible ties between the prisoners and the American government after they were detained on Friday in connection with the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in June that turned into the center of a diplomatic row.

According to police, three American citizens in their 20s, Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar, and Karampreet Singh, were detained on Friday night in Edmonton, Alberta, in connection with the killing of 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar by masked gunmen outside Vancouver.

In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that there were” credible allegations” of American involvement in the killing of Nijjar, sparking a diplomatic row with India.

India had accused Nijjar of hyperlinks to violence, but furiously denied involvement in the killing. India told Canada last year to reduce 41 of its 62 officials from the state in response to the allegations. Although conflicts persist, they have since gotten less severe.

At a media conference in Toronto on Friday, Superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Mandeep Mooker stated that the three suspects had been resident of Canada as non-permanent people.

” We are investigating whether there are any ties to the government of India”, Mooker said, adding that it was an “ongoing research”.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Indian foreign secretary, criticized the” culture of violence” being used against Indian diplomats in Canada. https ://t. co/1fcyS92sG4

— Breitbart News ( @BreitbartNews ) October 3, 2023

David Teboul, the associate commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, reported that Indian officials are speaking with Indian counterparts. ” I would describe that cooperation as somewhat challenging”, he said. ” It’s been really difficult”.

By Monday, the three men were scheduled to be taken to British Columbia to confront first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit crime costs.

Nijjar, an Indian- born resident of Canada, was a plumber and also a leader in what remains of a when- strong movement to create an independent Hindu homeland, known as Khalistan. He had, however, refuted claims that he had any relations to violence.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a terrible Sikh insurgency erupted in north India, causing the death of thousands of people, including prominent Sikh officials, during a government onslaught.

Although the Khalistan movement has lost a significant amount of political influence, it still has supporters in the state of Punjab in India and in the significant Sikh diaspora abroad. The American government has repeatedly reaffirmed its concern that Sikh separatists were attempting to resurrect despite the active insurrection ending years ago.

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