An old letter written by Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking for the expulsion of India’s High Commissioner in Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, for his alleged role in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar has surfaced online.
The revelation comes amid a deepening diplomatic row between New Delhi and Ottawa. Prime Minister Trudeau blazed guns at India, accusing the country of being behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Things took a turn for the worse when Canada called Verma and a few other diplomats ‘persons of interest’ in the investigation into Nijjar’s murder.
In response, India recalled top diplomat Verma from Canada and expelled six Canadian diplomats from New Delhi, including the acting High Commissioner.
In its letter to Trudeau in September 2023, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) accused “agents of the Indian government” of being involved in the killing of Nijjar in June of the same year. The letter came days after Trudeau, in the Canadian Parliament, accused India of being involved in Nijjar’s killing.
SFJ dubbed Nijjar a “law-abiding” and “peace-loving Canadian citizen” who was killed as he was trying to mobilise Canadian Sikhs to participate and vote in the ‘Khalistan referendum’.
“High Commissioner Verma, as the head of India’s mission in Canada, must be held accountable for Nijjar’s assassination, which in every sense is act of state terrorism by India. The assassination of a Canadian citizen by India on Canadian soil is an unprecedented and unconscionable attack on Canada’s sovereignty and on the lives and liberties of all Canadians,” Pannun wrote.
It further claimed that Verma either knew or ought to have known of the plot to assassinate Nijjar and accused him of “cracking down on those peacefully advocating for Sikh human rights”.
Sikhs for Justice asked for the expulsion of Verma, claiming there was a risk of further violence in the country.
“If High Commissioner Verma is not immediately expelled, we fear that many more Khalistan Referendum campaigners may suffer harm at the hands of Indian agents active in Canada, with the knowledge and complicity of High Commissioner Verma,” Gurpatwant Singh Pannun wrote in his letter.
Justin Trudeau had earlier alleged that India failed to act on the investigation into the killing of Nijjar despite receiving evidence from Ottawa. India, however, called Canada’s statement “baseless”, saying the country did not share a “shred of evidence of India’s involvement in Nijjar’s killing”.
Trudeau, who testified before the country’s foreign interference inquiry on Wednesday, admitted that his government only provided “intelligence and no proof” to India over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.
“What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along — Canada has presented us (India) with no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a late-night statement.