Canadian police have arrested three members of an alleged hit squad who are suspected of having been tasked by the Indian government with killing prominent Sikh, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia last year.CBC News reported Sunday that police are also investigating the three suspects for additional murders in Canada, including the shooting of an 11-year-old boy.The three suspects, Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpreet Singh and Karan Brar, face first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the Nijjar case.The three are all Indian nationals.
Sources told CBC News the men arrived on student visas.None are believed to have pursued education while in Canada.
None have obtained permanent residency.Others tied to this crime could be arrested in the coming days, police said.&This investigation does not end here.
We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals,& said Supt.
Mandeep Mooker, the officer in charge of the B.C.
RCMP'sIntegrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).Assistant Commissioner David Teboul, the RCMP commander for the Pacific region, said he wouldn&t comment on the alleged links between these men and Indian officials, CBC News reported.He did say the force is &investigating connections to the government of India.&Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen, was shot dead on June 18, shortly after evening prayers at his Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., in what appeared to be a highly coordinated attack.Last August, Canadian officials told representatives of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi'sgovernment in person that Canada had intelligence linking it to Nijjar'skilling.A month later — on Sept.
18, 2023 — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons that &Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India& and Nijjar'skilling.&Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,& he added.Modi'sgovernment has denied it ordered extrajudicial killings in the U.S.
and Canada.All of the men arrested Friday are alleged associates of a criminal group in Punjab and neighboring Haryana state that is associated with notorious Punjabi gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently held in India'shigh-security Sabarmati prison in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, according to sources close to the investigation.Bishnoi is accused by the Indian government of the shooting murder of Punjabi singer-politician Sidhu Moose Wala, a former resident of Ontario, Canada, in Punjab in May 2022, as well as drug smuggling and extortion.CBC News reported that Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a pro-Khalistan activist and the president of a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C.
His day job was working as a plumber.For years, the Indian government called him a terrorist — a claim Nijjar repeatedly denied.One source close to the investigation told CBC News Canada is seeing foreign governments, including India, make use of criminal elements to carry out international operations.&Why risk sending Indian government people when you can get so much mileage using people from organized crime?& the investigator said.The post Canadian police arrest 3 suspects in Sikh killing first appeared on Ariana News.