Even as India seems to have cornered Canada on the issue of Hardeep Singh Nijjar murder case and asking questions as to what it thinks is the exact definition of terrorism and didn’t Nijjar come across as one, US has stated that it is closely coordinating with Canada pertaining to the claims of Indian government’s so-called complicity in the fatal shooting of Khalistan terrorist Nijjar.
In response to a query on Nijjar’s murder in Canada, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller stated, “We remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues on this question.”
Miller made his comments on Monday (local time in the US) during a daily press briefing.
Recently, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, claimed that Nijjar’s shooting death was orchestrated by the Indian government.
On June 18, Nijjar, a man with a terrorist designation in India, was shot and killed in front of a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.
During a discussion in the Canadian Parliament, Trudeau asserted that “agents of the Indian government” were likely responsible for the murder of the Canadian citizen who also served as the president of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.
India, meanwhile, has categorically denied the allegations, labeling them as “absurd” and “motivated.”
Notably, Canada has not yet made any public proof of the alleged murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar available.
According to Miller, the US has repeatedly contacted the Indian government to urge them to assist the Canadian inquiry.
He claimed that during their meeting on Friday, US State Secretary Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar got a chance to talk about the matter.
According to Trudeau, Ottawa wants to “work constructively with India” in regards to the claims.
While addressing a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trudeau said, “In regards to India, Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday. With India, we did that many weeks ago. We are there to work constructively with India and we hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter.”
The persistent issue with Canada, according to EAM Jaishankar, has existed for a while because of the government’s “permissiveness” toward terrorism, extremism, and violence there.
According to Mr. Jaishankar, the existing state of affairs cannot be described as a “deadlock,” and the Indian government is willing to consider any specific and pertinent information supplied by the Canadian side in relation to the matter.
“Well, I don’t know if I would use the term deadlock,” Mr. Jaishankar remarked during a press conference on Friday in Washington, DC. Here is the problem: Some accusations have been made by the Canadians. They have been informed that this is not a policy of the Government of India, and we are open to reviewing it if they are willing to provide us with details and other pertinent information. In that regard, the situation is as it is.
“But what we do not want to see is an incident treated in isolation because then that somewhere does not convey the right picture,” he continued.