Expelled Indian high commissioner denies involvement in murder of Sikh leader in Canada
Vancouver (AP/PTI): India's high commissioner to Canada has denied any involvement in the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader who was killed in British Columbia last year even though the Canadian government has named him as a person of interest in the assassination.
Sanjay Kumar Verma, who was expelled last Monday along with five other Indian diplomats, said in an interview on CTV's Question Period Sunday that the allegations are politically motivated.
"Nothing at all," Verma said when asked if he had any role in in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was killed outside a cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023. "No evidence presented. Politically motivated."
Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Nijjar's murder and are awaiting trial.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home. They said top Indian officials were then passing that information to Indian organized crime groups who were targeting the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.
Verma denied the Indian government was targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
"I, as high commissioner of India, have never done anything of that kind,” he said.
Any action taken by Indian officials in Canada was “overt,” said Verma.
In the interview Verma condemned Nijjar's death.
"Any murder is wrong and bad," he said. "I do condemn."
Verma also pushed back on comments made by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly that compared India to Russia. She said Canada's national police force has linked Indian diplomats to homicides, death threats and intimidation in Canada.
"Let me see the concrete evidence she's talking about," said Verma. "As far as I'm concerned, she's talking politically."
India has rejected the Canadian accusations as absurd, and its foreign ministry said it was expelling Canada's acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response.
Verma said “not a shred of evidence has been shared with us” about the Canadian allegations.
The RCMP has said attempts earlier this month to share evidence with Indian officials were unsuccessful.
Verma said the RCMP had not applied for the proper visas to visit India.
“A visa needs to be affixed,” he said. “For any government delegation to travel to another country, you need an agenda to go by. There was no agenda at all."
Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee Thursday in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.
In the case announced by the Justice Department, Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors have previously said was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada.
“An indictment is not a conviction,” Verma said. “It will follow its judicial process.”
India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of what is known as the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.
The Khalistan movement supports the establishment of an independent Sikh state in India.
The Nijjar killing in Canada has soured India-Canada ties for more than a year, but Verma doesn't expect this will impact business relations between the two countries.
“I don't see much impact on non-political bilateral relations,” he said.
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Bondi Beach shooting suspect conducted firearms training with his father, Australian police say
Melbourne (AP): A man accused of killing 15 people at Sydney's Bondi Beach conducted firearms training in an area of New South Wales state outside of Sydney with his father, Australian police documents released on Monday allege.
The men recorded a video about their justification for the meticulously planned attack, according to a police statement of facts that was made public following Naveed Akram's video court appearance Monday from a Sydney hospital where he has been treated for an abdominal injury.
Officers wounded Akram at the scene of the Dec. 14 shooting and killed his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram.
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The New South Wales state government confirmed Naveed Akram was transferred on Monday from a hospital to a prison. Neither facility was identified by authorities.
The statement alleges the 24-year-old and his father began their attack by throwing four improvised explosive devices toward a crowd celebrating an annual Jewish event at Bondi Beach, but the devices failed to explode.
Police described the devices as three aluminium pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb containing an explosive, black powder and steel ball bearings. None detonated, but police described them as “viable” IEDs.
Authorities have charged Akram with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded survivors and one count of committing a terrorist act.
The antisemitic attack at the start of the eight-day Hanukkah celebration was Australia's worst mass shooting since a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania state in 1996.
The New South Wales government introduced draft laws to Parliament on Monday that Premier Chris Minns said would become the toughest in Australia.
The new restrictions would include making Australian citizenship a condition of qualifying for a firearms license. That would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen with a permanent resident visa.
Sajid Akram also legally owned six rifles and shotguns. A new legal limit for recreational shooters would be a maximum of four guns.
Police said a video found on Naveed Akram's phone shows him with his father "reciting their political and religious views and appear to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack.”
The men are seen in the video “condemning the acts of Zionists” while they also “adhere to a religiously motivated ideology linked to the Islamic State,” police said.
Video shot in October shows them “firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner” on grassland surrounded by trees, police said.
“There is evidence that the Accused and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for many months,” police allege.
