VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian police said they arrested three suspects Friday in connection with the killing of a Sikh separatist leader last June that became the focus of a diplomatic dispute with India, and are investigating possible links between those arrested and the Indian government.
Three Indian nationals in their 20s, Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh, were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, on Friday morning when masked gunmen killed 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside Vancouver, police said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India in September when he said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s killing.
India had accused Nijjar of links to terrorism but angrily denied involvement in the killing. In response to the allegations, India last year asked Canada to withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Tensions remain, but have since eased somewhat.
The three suspects were living in Canada as non-permanent residents, Mandeep Mooker, superintendent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said at a news conference in Toronto on Friday.
“We are investigating whether there are any links to the Indian government,” Mooker said, adding that it was an “ongoing investigation.”
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said Canadian authorities were speaking with counterparts in India. “I would describe this collaboration as quite challenging,” he said. “It was very difficult.”
The three men were expected to be transported to British Columbia by Monday to face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, was a plumber and also a leader of the remnants of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan. However, he had denied allegations of links to terrorism.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a bloody, decades-long Sikh insurgency rocked northern India until it was crushed by a government crackdown that killed thousands of people, including prominent Sikh leaders.
The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power but still has followers in the Indian state of Punjab as well as in the large Sikh diaspora abroad. Although the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists would attempt a comeback.