NEW YORK: US spy agencies gave assistance, but communications intercepted by Canada were more definitive in linking New Delhi to the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar that has heightened tensions between the two nations, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Quoting Western allied officials, the leading US newspaper reported that the US intelligence agencies offered their Canadian counterparts context that assisted Canada in concluding that New Delhi had been involved. Yet, it said, what appears to be the “smoking gun,” intercepted communications of Indian envoys in Canada indicating involvement in the plot.
While US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged India to cooperate with the Canadian investigation, US officials have largely tried to avoid triggering any diplomatic blowback from New Delhi, it was pointed out. But the disclosure of the involvement of American intelligence risks ensnaring Washington in the diplomatic battle between India and Canada at a time when it is keen to develop New Delhi as a closer partner, the report said.
The US did not learn about the plot, or evidence pointing to New Delhi’s involvement in it, until after operatives had killed the Sikh leader, the Times said, quoting allied officials.
Canadian National Killed
Two men fatally shot Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian national who had advocated independence for the Indian Punjab, in the Vancouver area on 18 June.
In New York, Pakistan said it was not “surprised” by the revelations from Canada that the Indian government was involved in the killing of the pro-Khalistan leader, APP reported.
Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar linked the killing to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ideology of Hindutva or Hindu nationalism.
Kakar said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York during the UN General Assembly session that these ideologues of Hindutva are becoming emboldened in a way that they are now going beyond the region.
He said that the unfortunate murder of Singh on Canadian soil is a reflection of that ominous tendency.
