Hardeep Nijjar was killed in the parking lot of the Surrey (B.C.) Gurudwara of which he was the president, on 22nd June 2023. Last week, Canada’s PM, Justin Trudeau, told Canadian parliament that Canadian intelligence had “credible evidence” of a “potential link” of Nijjar’s murder to some Indian official(s).
This unprecedented act of accusing the world’s largest democracy of targetted killings on foreign soil (something that has never been done before) raised a maelstorm of diplomatic and intelligence issues. The issue that has drawn the most attention in world media is the following: “What evidence does Trudeau have on the basis of which he made this startling accusation?”
However, there has been some relatively minor attention to another issue, which I believe changes the ground realities on this case in a significant manner. That question is: “Was Hardeep Nijjar working for Canadian intelligence? Was he a Canadian asset?” I have found some discussion on this on Firstpost and Republic TV. I think such an important question deserves serious attention, and so I am writing this article.
Broadly speaking, the case that Hardeep Nijjar was indeed a Canadian asset relies upon four arguments. I will sketch these below. I will be careful in drawing my conclusions, and ask readers to do the same.
Argument I: It is an established fact that Nijjar and Canadian intelligence were in frequent touch prior to his killing. Nijjar’s son Balraj (one of his two sons) stated that his father and Canadian agencies met “sometimes twice a week” over a period of time and “had met the week before his killing.” Now, this could be due to two reasons. The first being that they had some evidence (CBS has aired news on a leak that says it could be Indian diplomatic communications) that India was going to target Nijjar.
And they were trying to protect him, and keep him safe. The second is that he was a Canadian asset, working closely for Canadian agencies, and he was simply meeting his “handlers” in these Canadian agencies. However, even consider the alternative hypothesis in more depth: that they were merely trying to protect him. Given the amount of organized crime in Canada (a lot of it done by Khalistani elements, by the way), is it not strange that their agencies would devote so much time and so many meetings to protecting a person they describe as a mere “plumber.” Why were they so focussed on this one person unless he was important TO THEM? That again brings us to the hypothesis that they had cultivated him as their own asset.
Argument II: Nijjar arrived in Canada in 1997 on a fake passport bearing the name RAVI SHARMA. His comical attempts to gain Canadian asylum (and citizenship) were described in another article. The sum and substance of that information is this: of the two attempts Nijjar made to fool Canadian immigration authorities, neither succeeded, and he was denied asylum and, essentially, called a fraud and liar.
But then all of a sudden, he was granted citizenship around 2015. His citizenship application is “not available” which is strange considering his first two attempts were easily accessed by globalnews (a Canadian news agency). Why is his third, and successful application not available? Has it been deliberately classified because it was part of a “deal”: that Canada will grant him citizenship if he works for Canadian intelligence?
Argument III: Nijjar’s past and present as a Khalistani terrorist was no secret. The NIA prepared dossier carefully details his rise to operational leadership of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force, after the previous head and Nijjar’s mentor Jagtar Singh Tara (one of the main accused in the assasination of Beant Singh) was re-captured by India from Thailand. Nijjar was mentored by Tara when the latter was hiding in Pakistan (there are pictures showing Nijjar and Tara together at Nankana Sahib Gurudwara in Pakistan).
All this was in the dossier that was given to Canada not once, but on multiple occassions including when Trudeau visited India in 2018. Nijjar’s activities at the Surrey Gurudwara also could not have escaped Canadian attention since he was very prominent there in praising terrorists (ex: those that killed Indira Gandhi, Beant Singh etc.). Interpol had a red corner notice on Nijjar. The USA had put him on its no-fly list.
It is therefore absolutely untenable that Canadian intelligence really thought that Nijjar was “just another plumber fixing toilets in Vancouver.” And yet he was secretively given Canadian citizenship. Surely any “first world country” checks an applicant’s past before granting citizenship. It is absolutely incredulous to say Canada was unaware of Nijjar’s status as a top terrorist leader at the time it granted him citizenship. An immigrantion agency that is so smart it could detect frauds in Nijjar’s first two applications is suddenly so dumb it forgets the trove of evidence that this man is a top terrorist leader? Unbelievable.
Nijjar with Beant Singh’s killer Jagtar Singh Tara in Nankana Sahib (photo courtesy India Today).
Argument IV: As stated before, the exact date when Nijjar was granted Canadian citizenship is not known, but India believes it was around 2015. Now, Times Now has a video of Nijjar’s terror training camp in the mountains of B.C. in 2015. That would be soon after Nijjar was granted citizenship. Does it not seem strange that these two events are so close to one another? Would a person risk making such a camp so soon after he obtained citizenship UNLESS that was the deal? That “here, become our citizen, and start your work on Khalistan. We’ll give you impunity.”
So this is the evidence. My own analysis of it suggests that Nijjar was hired by Canadian intelligence to ensure that they had an “inside man” leading the important Khalistani Gurudwara at Surrey B.C. Nijjar would get Canadian citizenship and impunity for his anti-India provocations. Canadian intelligence would have a well placed man who ensured that future Khalistani terror acts do NOT occur on Canadian soil (like Air India flight 182 happened). Nijjar (and perhaps others) would ensure that all hatred and violence was directed only towards India, and completely away from Canadian shores.
