J’Accuse

A Canadian official on Wednesday accused Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah of orchestrating a campaign of violence targeting Sikh separatists in Canada, an allegation that intensifies an ongoing diplomatic spat between the two countries over India’s campaign of transnational repression against its perceived enemies, Axios reported.

On Tuesday, Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison spoke before a parliamentary national security committee about the allegations, which first emerged in a Washington Post report this month.

He told the committee that Shah had authorized intelligence-gathering operations and attacks against Sikh separatists on Canadian soil. He added that he “confirmed” Shah’s involvement, but did not provide further details.

Morrison’s comments come amid rising tensions between Canada and India that were set off last year when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Indian government agents were responsible for the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023.

Nijjar was a Canadian-Sikh activist and prominent advocate for the creation of an independent Sikh state in India’s Punjab region, a projected state known as Khalistan.

The diplomatic clash led both countries to expel each other’s top diplomats.

Indian officials have called the accusations “preposterous,” countering that Trudeau’s claims are politically motivated to secure political support from Canada’s large Sikh community – one of the largest outside India.

Delhi has also criticized Ottawa for failing to present sufficient evidence, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Shah, a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, holds a very influential role in the government and is the driver of a series of major national policies, including the contentious changes to Kashmir’s autonomy and a citizenship law widely criticized for its perceived anti-Muslim stance.

India has long regarded Sikh separatists as terrorists and quashed the movement domestically in the 1980s and 1990s. Although the Khalistan movement has largely disappeared in India, it has retained support in the global Sikh diaspora.

The controversy has also spread to the United States: Recently, federal prosecutors charged two Indian nationals with attempting to organize the assassination of another Sikh activist and US citizen, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in New York.

Indian officials have been reportedly more receptive to US concerns and have initiated an internal probe regarding Pannun’s case, suspending an intelligence officer linked to the planned attack.