Who was Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

Canada has accused India of being linked to the murder of a Sikh leader on Canadian soil, fuelling a significant rift between the two countries. Who was the man, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, at the centre of those tensions?

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was born in the district of Jalandhar in the North Indian state of Punjab. As a young man in 1997, he moved to Canada, where he married, had two sons and worked as a plumber.

Settled in the province of British Columbia, he also made a name for himself as a vocal advocate for the creation of Khalistan – a separate homeland for Sikhs, who are a religious minority that makes up 2% of India’s population.

He had been labelled a terrorist by India, accused of, among other activities, being the “mastermind” behind the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), a banned militant group in the country.

He was 45 years old when he was shot dead by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in a Vancouver suburb on a June summer evening this year.

Those close to him have said he was warned by Canadian intelligence services before his death about threats to his safety.

India has always firmly denied any involvement in his killing, and called the allegations by Mr Trudeau “absurd”.

To his supporters, Mr Nijjar – who became a Canadian citizen in 2007 – was a peaceful advocate for Sikh independence in British Columbia and a man who cared deeply about his community.

A large memorial has been set up for him outside the Surrey Gurdwara doors where he served as president. His funeral was attended by hundreds.

“He was so full of energy,” Doug McCallum, the former mayor of Surrey, told CityNews Vancouver after his death. “I remember he used to pester me all the time to get a volleyball for the youth in the community and to widen the walkway so that people can get exercise.”

But in India, he was wanted under India’s Terrorist Act for several cases, including a 2007 cinema bombing in Punjab that killed six people and injured 40, and the 2009 assassination of Sikh Indian politician Rulda Singh.

More on the Canada-India rift:

In 2020, a statement by the Indian government accused him of being actively involved in “operationalising, networking, training and financing” KTF members.

He had also been accused of running terrorist training camps in British Columbia for supporters ready to carry out attacks in India.

At the time, India reported its concerns about Mr Nijjar to Canadian authorities.

Canadian police said in 2016 that they were aware of the allegations levelled against Mr Nijjar, but he was never charged in Canada.

Mr Nijjar himself wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that year about the allegations.

In the letter, reported on by Canadian media at the time, he identifies himself as a “Sikh nationalist who believes in and supports Sikhs’ right to self-determination and independence of Indian occupied Punjab through a future referendum”.

But he added: “I have never believed in, supported or been involved in any violent activity.”

At the time of his death, he had been planning a non-binding referendum for Sikhs living in British Columbia on the creation of an independent state in India – part of a global campaign by US-based group Sikhs for Justice, which is banned in India.

The Sikh separatist movement has long been a source of tension in the Canada-India relationship, which analysts have said is now at an all-time low.

India has strongly opposed the Khalistan movement. All mainstream political parties, including in Punjab, have denounced violence and separatism.

The demand for Khalistan peaked in India in the 1980s with an armed insurgency, which was later crushed. Thousands of people were killed during the violence.

The movement also resulted in two of the most controversial moments in Indian history.

Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple – the holiest site for Sikhs – to flush out armed separatists who were sheltering in the complex. The operation, ordered by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, resulted in many deaths and caused damage to the temple.

A few months later, she was shot dead by two of her Sikh bodyguards who were upset with her orders. Her death led to days of rioting in Delhi, in which thousands of Sikhs were killed.

But the movement is not prominent in Punjab now, and several groups vocally oppose it.

Its roots in both Canada and Britain can also be traced back to the 1980s, as diaspora groups reacted to the events unfolding in India.

The issue came to a head in 1985 when a bomb exploded on an Air India flight from Toronto to London, killing all 329 people on board.

After a lengthy investigation, two Sikh separatists in British Columbia were acquitted of murder and conspiracy charges in 2005. A third man was found guilty of manslaughter for his role in making the bomb.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly accused Canada of not doing enough to quell Sikh protests and “anti-India” activities in Canada.

Many supporters of Khalistan in Canada maintain that the movement is peaceful, and that they have been a target of disinformation campaigns and harassment by India.

Other Sikhs have distanced themselves from the separatist movement and said that it does not represent the view of the majority of Sikhs in the country.

Ujjal Dosanjh, a Sikh Canadian and a former Premier of British Columbia, said in an interview with BBC Newsday that he does not believe Mr Nijjar was a prominent figure in the global Khalistan movement, calling him a “small fry”.

Gurpreet Singh, a British Columbia-based journalist and radio host who has interviewed Mr Nijjar in the past, said he is sceptical of India’s claims against the murdered Sikh leader.

“The Indian government has established that he was a terrorist, but on what basis? He was never convicted on any court of law. He has no criminal record in Canada,” Mr Singh told the BBC.

The journalist, who describes himself as a secular Indian and who does not support the Khalistan movement, said he remembered Mr Nijjar as a “very soft spoken” person who was active in the local community.

“Nobody saw him spew venom against anyone or be angry,” he said. “You may disagree with him on (Khalistan) … but he had every right to ask for it.”