Canadian officials claim proof linking Indian staffers in Vancouver with Nijjar murder: News report

Security officials in Canada have received evidence that Indian consular staff in Vancouver supplied information to allegedly assist in the 2023 killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail claimed on Monday, quoting two unidentified officials.

One of the Indian officials who allegedly gathered information about Nijjar worked as a visa officer at the Vancouver consulate, the newspaper quoted the officials as having alleged. The Indian official allegedly used his position to collect details about Nijjar from members of the Indian diaspora living in Surrey, British Columbia, where the separatist lived.

The Canadian officials said the claims are based on investigations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, intelligence from Canada’s spy agency and its allies in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Nijjar was killed by masked gunmen on June 18, 2023. His killing had led to a deterioration in the relations between New Delhi and Ottawa after Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister at the time, told Parliament that intelligence agencies were examining “credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the murder. India has rejected Canada’s allegations.

Nijjar was an advocate for Khalistan, an independent Sikh nation sought by some groups. He was the head of the Khalistan Tiger Force, which is a designated terrorist outfit in India.

Four Indian citizens are facing trial in Canada in connection with the Khalistani separatist’s killing. They face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

One of the unidentified officials quoted by The Globe and Mail claimed that the visa officer at the Vancouver consulate was also an intelligence officer with India’s Research and Analysis Wing or RAW. The second official did not name the visa officer but said that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had been monitoring an undercover RAW agent posted at the consulate who was also working as a visa officer.

The officials claimed that Singh worked with the Indian consul general in Vancouver at the time.

The newspaper also reported that the information gathered in Canada was allegedly passed to another intelligence officer in New Delhi, who communicated it to members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. A Canada-based member of the group allegedly helped arrange Nijjar’s murder.

The two Canadian officers said that the official in New Delhi was Vikash Yadav, who has also been named in a United States indictment in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill another Sikh separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The Globe and Mail report came on the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. Carney arrived in India on Friday for his first visit to India since becoming prime minister.

On Saturday, India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, told reporters in Mumbai that there had been no foreign interference by Indian officials in Canada, saying “it never happened”, the newspaper reported.

There has been no response from the high commissioner’s office to these allegations.

An unidentified senior government officer in Ottawa also said on February 26 that the Canadian government believed that India was no longer linked to the alleged violent crimes in Canada

‘India perpetrator of foreign interference’: Canadian intelligence

Even as the Indian high commissioner has denied foreign interference by New Delhi, Canadian newspaper The National Post reported on Sunday that the country’s domestic intelligence agency has said India continues to be among the main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage against the country.

On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Eric Balsam, told the newspaper that the agency’s assessment had not changed, marking the first time a Canadian security agency has contradicted a statement by a senior government official, the newspaper reported.

In January 2025, a Canadian inquiry commission accused India of interfering in the country’s electoral process by clandestinely providing financial support to political leaders and engaging in disinformation.

The Indian external affairs ministry had rejected the inquiry panel’s report, and had alleged that it was Canada that was consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs.

On February 8, India and Canada said that they had agreed on a work plan to guide cooperation on national security and law enforcement.