Ottawa: The leader of the People's Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, has said that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside the gurdwara in Surrey in 2023, was not Canadian but a "foreign terrorist who used fraudulent documents to claim asylum in Canada several times starting in 1997."

In a post on X, Bernier said that authorities should have deported Nijjar after his fake asylum claim, like the hundreds of thousands of fake asylum claimants who are in Canada right now. He called for taking away Nijjar's citizenship posthumously to rectify the administrative error.

He said that allegations made by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Liberal government regarding Indian diplomats engaging in criminal activities in Canada are "highly serious" and stressed that they need to be addressed decisively if proven true.

Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India's National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot and killed outside a Gurdwara in Surrey in June last year.

In a post on X, Bernier said, "If true, allegations made by the RCMP and the Liberal government that Indian diplomats participated in criminal activities on our territory are very serious and should be dealt with. So far, however, we haven't been given any proof. And Trudeau is clearly using this crisis to divert the attention from other controversies. One myth should be dispelled though: That the central figure in this controversy, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Khalistani militant who was murdered last year, was a Canadian."

"He was actually a foreign terrorist who used fraudulent documents to claim asylum in Canada several times starting in 1997. His claims were rejected but he was nevertheless allowed to stay in this country and was somehow granted citizenship in 2007. Nijjar wasn't a Canadian. We should perhaps posthumously take away his citizenship to right this administrative error. He should have been deported after his first fake asylum claim, like the hundreds of thousands of fake asylum claimants who are in Canada right now," he added.

On Monday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner, Mike Duheme claimed that they have information on certain criminal activity carried out by agents of the Government of India.

"Over the past few years and more recently, law enforcement agencies in Canada have successfully investigated and charged a significant number of individuals for their direct involvement in homicides, extortions and other criminal acts of violence. In addition, there have been well over a dozen credible imminent threats to life which have led to the conduct of duty to warn, by law enforcement with members of South Asian community and specifically, members of the pro-Khalistan movement," the RCMP Commissioner said.

He said that Royal Canadian Mounted Police created a multi-disciplinary team to investigate and coordinate efforts to combat this threat.

"In February 2024, the RCMP created a multi-disciplinary team to investigate and coordinate efforts to combat this threat. The team has learnt a significant amount of information on breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the Government of India, in consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians & individuals living in Canada. Despite law enforcement's action, the harm has continued, posing a serious threat to our public safety. We reached a point where we felt that it was imperative to confront Govt of India and inform the public about some very serious findings that have been uncovered through our investigations," he said.

The RCMP Commissioner further claimed that investigations have revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities, such as collecting information for the Government of India, either directly or through their proxies; and other individuals who acted voluntarily or through coercion.

In a statement released on Monday, India had "strongly" rejected a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were "persons of interest" in an investigation and termed it as "preposterous imputations" and part of the political agenda of the Justin Trudeau government.

In a hard-hitting statement, India said Prime Minister Trudeau's hostility to India has long been in evidence and his government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists "to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada".

India also expelled six Canadian diplomats hours after it summoned Canada's Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler and conveyed that the "baseless targeting" of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable."

In a press release, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, "They have been asked to leave India by or before 11:59 pm on Saturday, October 19, 2024."

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