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NEW DELHI: While Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has alleged the role of the Indian government behind the killing of Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, their own investigators had suspected it to be the fallout of a bloody feud between rival Khalistan groups. One of the initial lines of probe hovered around an ongoing battle over the Sikh religious institutions in Canada where the role of the group led by the faction formed by Ripudaman Singh Malik was under focus.
Malik, a member of terror outfit Babbar Khalsa, was also an accused in the 1985 bombing of Air India’s Flight 182 Kanishka. He was killed in July 2022 by two local Canadian criminals. A year later, Nijjar was gunned down in a similar fashion in the parking lot of a gurudwara. The Canadian media, including the ‘Vancouver Sun’, had reported that the police were looking at two motives – a “more local political dispute in Surrey” being one of them. The other was to ascertain if Nijjar was killed because of his “Khalistan activism”.
The Canadian media had also reported that a contract on Nijjar had been circulating on an encrypted online site used to hire gang hitmen. The local media reports suggest Nijjar was in a dispute with Malik, which landed in court, over the printing of the Guru Granth Sahib in Surrey in violation of a religious edict. According to a Canadian Postmedia report, their dispute was ongoing at the time Malik was gunned down.
But chief of secessionist outfit Sikhs For Justice Gurpatwant Singh Pannun – a wanted terrorist in India – had rejected the rivalry theory and said Malik and Nijjar had “political differences”. Sources also said that in the weeks following the murder, the probe had suddenly shifted focus on the Khalistan angle and there was no substantial update to media from the local police.
Malik, a member of terror outfit Babbar Khalsa, was also an accused in the 1985 bombing of Air India’s Flight 182 Kanishka. He was killed in July 2022 by two local Canadian criminals. A year later, Nijjar was gunned down in a similar fashion in the parking lot of a gurudwara. The Canadian media, including the ‘Vancouver Sun’, had reported that the police were looking at two motives – a “more local political dispute in Surrey” being one of them. The other was to ascertain if Nijjar was killed because of his “Khalistan activism”.
The Canadian media had also reported that a contract on Nijjar had been circulating on an encrypted online site used to hire gang hitmen. The local media reports suggest Nijjar was in a dispute with Malik, which landed in court, over the printing of the Guru Granth Sahib in Surrey in violation of a religious edict. According to a Canadian Postmedia report, their dispute was ongoing at the time Malik was gunned down.
But chief of secessionist outfit Sikhs For Justice Gurpatwant Singh Pannun – a wanted terrorist in India – had rejected the rivalry theory and said Malik and Nijjar had “political differences”. Sources also said that in the weeks following the murder, the probe had suddenly shifted focus on the Khalistan angle and there was no substantial update to media from the local police.
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