The Lower Mainland’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) and the RCMP are set to give an update on the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar Friday afternoon.
The homicide team says police will give more information on the investigation at a press conference in Surrey at 12:30 p.m.
The update comes after reports of several arrests in connection with the killing of the prominent Sikh leader Friday morning.
Nijjar, a high-profile pro-Khalistan activist, was shot and killed in broad daylight outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey in 2023.
The president of the BC Sikh Gurdwara Council Moninder Singh says the arrests come as a “sigh of relief,” but there’s still a very important question remaining — he wants to know the extent to which India played a hand in the crime.
“The arrests provide some relief around getting [the suspects] off the street,” Moninder Singh told CityNews sister station OMNI News. “But if India’s just going to go and hire somebody else to carry out operations — that’s still outstanding.”
Police have taken multiple people into custody who were allegedly members of a ‘hit squad,’ operating at the direction of the Indian government.
Court records show Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpreet Singh, and Karan Brar have all been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Surrey and Edmonton along with a murder in Surrey on June 18 of last year.
Last September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that Ottawa was investigating “credible allegations” that New Delhi had been involved in Nijjar’s killing – starting a diplomatic firestorm between the two countries.
The CBC reported earlier Friday that it believes the suspects entered Canada in 2021 as international students “although with no intention of pursuing education.” They entered the country and did not seek permanent resident status, but “immediately” turned to criminality, and not long after plotted the conspiracy to murder Nijjar, the broadcaster added.
Since the murder of Nijjar, the CBC reported that police believe there have been three more killings by the same ‘hit squad’, including two in Edmonton and one in Winnipeg.
At a press event Friday, Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh confirmed for reporters that there’s intelligence that connects the assassination to the Indian government.
“That is horrific —that a foreign government would kill a Canadian on Canadian soil,” said Jagmeet Singh. “Arrests being made are a positive step. And we want to see everyone that was responsible [for] this held to account.”
Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Dominic Leblanc declined to comment directly on the matter Friday, instead directing all questions to police.
“This is a matter of an ongoing active police investigation that likely and very clearly will end up before criminal courts,” said Leblanc. “There was a high certainty that the government knew that foreign states were responsible for online activity.”
Leblanc added, “I think the police operation that you see ongoing today confirms that the RCMP take these matters extremely seriously.”
In November 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it had charged an Indian national in connection with the foiled assassination attempt of a Khalistani separatist leader in that country, who has ties to Canada.
The office explained at the time that the would-be victim, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen “was an associate” of Sikh leader Nijjar.
The Attorney General said it’s alleged Nikhil Gupta was directed by an Indian government official — identified only as CC-1 — between May and June to hire someone to carry out the murder of Pannun in the U.S. It noted that didn’t happen because the contracted killer was actually an undercover U.S. agent.
The office added that it linked Nijjar’s killing to the alleged plot against Pannun in the U.S. and alleged Gupta was also involved in communications about the 45-year-old temple president’s death.
CityNews has reached out to Surrey Guru Nanak Gurdwara and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth for more information.
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With files from Dean Reckseidler and Charlie Carey