WATCH | Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the man India is accused of killing?:<\/strong>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763919377_903_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWho was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the man India is accused of killing?<\/p>\n
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a pro-Khalistan activist and the president of a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. His day job was working as a plumber. For years, the Indian government called him a terrorist \u2014 a claim Nijjar repeatedly denied. So, who was Nijjar, and why did India think he was such a danger?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole thing is both countries are mature enough to understand that we need to have a relationship where we discuss how people can be safe on the streets,” he said. “Canadians safe on Canadian streets, Indians safe on Indian streets.”<\/p>\n
Patnaik also said if evidence is presented in court that substantiates Canada\u2019s allegations, \u201cthen we will take actions ourselves, like we are taking action in the U.S,.\u201d adding that India does not have evidence at this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not want people to sully India\u2019s image but doing activities abroad which are antithetical to exactly what India portrays,\u201d Patnaik said.<\/p>\n
Before his meeting with Modi, Carney told reporters on Sunday that Canada views India as a reliable trading partner and that an agreement would help scale up trade with \u201cone of the world\u2019s largest and fastest-growing economies.”<\/p>\n
The prime minister emphasized that Canada has to remain vigilant on any forms of foreign interference, and he said Canada has established co-operation with Indian law enforcement and national security advisers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s engagement with a variety of nations on protecting Canadians, and we will continue to do that,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
Sikhs holding independence referendum in Ottawa<\/p>\n
Sikhs for Justice, whose Canadian chapter was headed by Hardeep Singh Nijjar until his assassination in 2023, is holding a referendum in Ottawa on Sunday as part of its campaign for an independent Sikh Punjab, called “Khalistan” by Sikh nationalists.<\/p>\n
The new leader of the Canadian chapter, Inderjeet Singh Gosal, criticized the Carney government\u2019s decision to try to restore normal diplomatic ties with India as premature.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763919378_137_default.jpg\")
Inderjeet Singh Gosal, speaking with CBC News on Parliament Hill, is the Sikh leader who has replaced Hardeep Singh Nijjar as head of the Khalistani referendum movement in Canada. (Marc Robichaud\/CBC)<\/p>\n
“You can see the extortions haven’t stopped, the shootings haven’t stopped,” Gosal told CBC News this week. “If anything, they’ve gotten worse. So when we talk about bringing back the diplomats, all we did is resume what was happening.”<\/p>\n
The Indian government has previously described the referendum movement as a provocation and an attack on its sovereignty. Patnaik called the referendum \u201cfarcical\u201d and said it\u2019s a sensitive subject in India.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a referendum by Canadians done in Canada. Now, if you want to do it, you do it. The problem that happens only is that back home in India, they see it as Canadian interference \u2014 foreign interference in India,\u201d Patnaik said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand was asked by CBC News at the G20 summit in South Africa what message is being sent as Carney meets with Modi on the same day as the referendum.<\/p>\n
In response, Anand said the meeting “has been contemplated for some time and it happens to be falling on the Sunday without an intention to undermine or hurt any interest domestically.”<\/p>\n
“And so I want to say at the forefront of every conversation is going to be the focus on the law enforcement matters, the law enforcement dialogue [and] the issues of public safety and security at home.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":399573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-399572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115600227587489918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"Dinesh](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763919376_569_default.jpg\")
Dinesh Patnaik, India’s high commissioner to Canada, is shown at the High Commission of India in Ottawa on Oct. 16. (Spencer Colby\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n