Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Khalistani extremist at centre of India-Canada diplomatic showdown?

NIA had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh against Hardeep Singh Nijjar. he was killed in his pickup truck in 2023 June while he was leaving the Surrey Gurdwara. (AP file photo)

The diplomatic rift between India and Canada has worsened with both nations expelling each other’s top officials in a tit-for-tat measure. A day after India withdrew its High Commissioner from Canada and sternly rejected the accusations levelled by the Justin Trudeau administration, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats in a late-night development. The fresh escalations are linked to the June 2023 killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. So, who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar and why the India-Canada ties have plunged to a new low?

Here’s what you need to know about the Nijjar connection:

1: Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead by unidentified assailants back in 2023 on June 18 in British Columbia’s Surrey.

2: Linked to Sikhs for Justice’s Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Nijjar was designated as terrorist by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs in 2020.

3: Born in Punjab’s Jalandhar, Nijjar had moved to Canada at a young age in 1997. In his initial days, he was reportedly working as a plumber.

4: Later, he settled down in British Columbia. Here, he came in contact with Khalistani sympathisers and became a vocal advocate of ‘homeland for Sikhs’.

5: In 2007, he became a Canadian citizen. This was the same time when a blast in a movie theatre in Punjab had killed six people. New Delhi had blamed Nijjar for the blast.

6: India’s major probe agency NIA had filed an FIR against Nijjar in 2020. The FIR had also named SFJ’s Pannu and UK-based Paramjit Singh Pamma. The FIR was filed under 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 124A (sedition), 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) of the Indian Penal Code.

7: All three were also booked under stringent UAPA. In fact, NIA had also announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh against Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

8: Tensions escalated once again in October after Canada termed that India's top diplomat as ‘person of interest’ in the 2023 Nijjar killing.

9: The Trudeau administration has also claimed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have unearthed fresh evidence against ‘agents of the Indian government.’

10: “Since Prime Minister Trudeau made certain allegations in September 2023, the Canadian Government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests from our side. This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.