Exclusive security video obtained by Fifth Estate The incident reveals elements of a highly coordinated attack that ended with the killing of a prominent Sikh separatist in Canada.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed on the night of June 18, 2023, as he left a place of worship in Surrey, British Columbia. This video has been independently verified by multiple sources.
The apparently targeted killing of Sikh gurdwara president Guru Nanak ultimately led to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s accusation that the Indian government had ordered the killing, a claim that has disrupted diplomatic relations between Canada and India. caused serious damage.
The video shows Nijjar leaving the gurdwara parking lot in a gray Dodge Ram pickup truck.
Watch the full documentary. “Killing Contract”,” from Fifth Estate upon YouTube or also stream on CBC-TV at 9pm ET CBC Gem.
As he approached the exit, a white sedan stopped in front of him, blocking his truck. Two men then ran up and shot Nijjar before fleeing in a silver Toyota Camry.
Fifth Estate He spoke to two witnesses who were playing soccer on a nearby field when they heard the gunshots.
“I saw those two running,” Bhupinderjit Singh Sidhu said. “We…started running toward where the sound came from.”
The Fifth Estate shows how the murder of a Sikh Canadian activist was carried out, allegedly by Indian government agents.
Sidhu told his friend Malkit Singh to chase the two men on foot while he tried to help Nijjar.
“I pushed on his chest and tried to shake him to see if he was breathing. But he was completely unconscious. He wasn’t breathing.”
Malkit Singh said he chased the two until they got into a Toyota Camry.
“A car came from around the alley and they got into the car. There were three other people sitting in the car,” Singh said. “You could smell gun smoke and the smell of guns was everywhere.”
The coordinated attack involved six men and two vehicles.
Almost nine months later, RCMP have not named or arrested any suspects in connection with Nijjar’s death.
“Unacceptable violation of sovereignty”
But in September, Prime Minister Trudeau accused the Indian government of orchestrating Nijjar’s murder.
Prime Minister Trudeau said in the House of Commons on September 18, “Canadian security services are actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between Indian government agents and the murder of Canadian national Hardeep Singh Nijjar.” We are pursuing this.”
“The involvement of a foreign government in the murder of Canadian citizens on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
The allegations sparked a diplomatic crisis, with India denying any involvement.
In January, Prime Minister Trudeau’s former national security and intelligence adviser Jody Thomas said: Canada said it was ‘committed to a healthier relationship’ with India. After months of strained relations following Nijjar’s murder.
Alleged fabricated conspiracy
For months, Indian media questioned Trudeau’s claims and demanded to see the evidence.
In November, evidence was discovered in New York City and a U.S. indictment was unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice, revealing details of a botched plot to kill another Canadian Sikh. The alleged contract killing in the United States was planned in the weeks leading up to Nijjar’s murder in Canada.
The indictment, which has not been heard in court, accuses Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, of trying to arrange the murder of a lawyer in New York City on the orders of an unnamed Indian government official.
The indictment says the plan failed when Gupta mistakenly asked someone who turned out to be a confidential informant reporting to U.S. law enforcement to help hire the hitman.
Mr. Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic on June 30, 2023 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and is awaiting extradition to the United States.
However, the indictment also revealed that the Indian government allegedly planned at least three more killings in Canada last June.
Just hours after Nijjar’s murder on June 18, Mr. Gupta sent a video of Nijjar’s body to a person he was trying to hire as a contract killer to “quickly” target Nijjar in New York, according to the documents. He allegedly instructed her to kill him.
fight for independent khalistan
It was later revealed that the alleged target in New York was Gurpatwant Singh Panun. He is a dual Canadian and American citizen and a staunch ally of Nijjar in the fight for an independent Sikh homeland in northern India to be called Khalistan.
In an interview with Fifth EstatePanun spoke of their close friendship and shared determination to campaign for Khalistan.
“The first call I received was from Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Panun said. Nijjar worked as a plumber in Surrey, and Panun said that every day after Nijjar finished work, he would call her to plan his next move in the Khalistan independence movement.
“He showed dedication every day and for years,” the New York-based attorney said.
The two spoke on the phone the day before Nijjar was killed.
”[Nijjar] “He told me that just the day before, Canadian intelligence had approached him and warned him that his life was in danger,” Panun said. Fifth EstateBob McCune. “He seemed very, very worried that day.”
referendums around the world
Both men were leaders of a Sikh separatist movement that aimed to carve out a country called Khalistan from the Indian state of Punjab. The Indian government considers the movement a security threat and labeled many of its leaders as terrorists, including Nijjar and Panun in 2020.
In recent years, Panun has been organizing non-binding referendums around the world asking Sikhs whether they support the creation of Khalistan.
Tens of thousands of Sikhs turned out to vote in referendums in London, Melbourne, Rome, Geneva, and Canada, including the Greater Toronto Area, Brampton and Mississauga, and Surrey.
Fifth Estate Panun gained exclusive access in late January when he traveled to San Francisco to hold the first Khalistan referendum on U.S. soil.
As general counsel for the U.S.-based pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice, Panun is widely known for: videos he posted online In it, he makes inflammatory statements about the Indian government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including labeling Modi a “Hindu terrorist.”
Sikh leader sentenced to death
Panun believes the non-binding referendum was the reason why he and Nijjar were targeted by the Indian government.
“We are campaigning in accordance with international law. [to] Sikhs, indigenous people of Punjab, [to] “I want them to have the opportunity to vote. That’s why they killed Nijjar, that’s why they tried to kill me, to stop the peaceful democratic process of the Khalistan referendum.” he said.
Panun said there was no doubt that Modi ordered the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and that he believed others were also involved.
The Indian High Commission in Ottawa refused. Fifth EstateInterview request from.
It appears Panun and Nijal are not the only targets of Canada’s Sikh community.
Fifth Estate met with five Surrey men and said they were given a “duty of warning” by RCMP.
This notification is sent to individuals who police believe are likely targets and are in immediate danger due to a threat to their lives.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was visited by RCMP officers and given a warning two days before he was killed.
Are there other targeted murders in Canada?
Multiple warning notice requirements and details in the US indictment that point to Canada’s ‘three targets’ make us wonder if there were other killings of Sikhs orchestrated by the Indian government in Canada There are some people.
“There may have been others already,” former CSIS Director Ward Elcock told CBC. power and politics “There have already been numerous murders of Sikhs in Canada that remain unsolved.”
In July 2022, Ripdaman Singh Malik, 72 years old, shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia, in a similar manner to Nijjar.
BC Gurdwaras Council spokesperson Moninder Singh believes the two killings are related.
“I think there’s definitely a tendency within the community to do that.” [Malik’s death] It was also the handiwork of Indian government operatives,” he said.
Moninder Singh himself was also obliged to issue a warning notice in July 2022, soon after Ripdaman Singh Malik was killed.
Malik, a polarizing figure, was one of the men acquitted in the case. 1985 Air India bombing.
He was shot while sitting in a red Tesla outside his workplace. Like Nijjar, police believe the two suspects in Malik’s murder fled in a car.
The trial of the two people arrested and charged in connection with Malik’s death is scheduled to begin in October.
