US official says PM Trudeau's allegations 'very serious', encourages India to cooperate
New York (PTI): Terming Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations about India's involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader as "very serious", a top US official has said that Washington supports Ottawa's efforts to investigate the matter and encourages New Delhi to cooperate.
"I'm going to protect diplomatic conversations and I'll leave it at that. Certainly the President is mindful of these serious allegations, and they are very serious. And we support Canada's efforts to investigate this," US National Security Council (NSC) Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said.
"We believe a fully transparent comprehensive investigation is the right approach so that we can all know exactly what happened and of course, we encourage India to cooperate with that," Kirby said in an interview to CNN.
Kirby was responding to a question on Trudeau's allegations about the involvement of "agents of the Indian government" in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
Nijjar was one of India's most-wanted terrorists who carried a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head and was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen outside a gurdwara in Surrey in the western Canadian province of British Columbia on June 18.
Kirby was asked about Trudeau raising the matter with President Joe Biden privately before going public and what information the Canadian leader shared with the US President about the matter.
"I'm going to be careful about what I say here to preserve the sanctity of this investigation and leave it for Canada to talk about the underpinning information, what more they're trying to learn. We want to respect that process and it's their investigation," Kirby added.
When further asked about what repercussions there will be due to the allegations, Kirby said, "let's not get ahead of where we are. There's an active investigation. We think it needs to be fully transparent, comprehensive. We know that Canadians will work to that end".
"Again, we urge India to cooperate with that investigation so that the facts can take investigators where they go and then once we have all that facts, and we have conclusions that we can draw from that, then you can start to look at recommendations or behaviours you might want to pursue."
In an interview to CBS News, Kirby said that "these allegations are serious and we know that the Canadians are investigating it. We certainly don't want to get ahead of that investigation".
"We urge India to cooperate in that investigation as well. This is the kind of an attack here that obviously we all want to know is handled in a transparent, thorough way. And that the Canadian people can get answers to this. So we're going stay in touch with our partners, both countries, and again we want to see the investigation be able to proceed unhindered and let the facts take it where it may," Kirby added.
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Rupee hits record intra-day low in early trade, falls 12 paise to 92.37 against US dollar
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee slumped 12 paise to its record low of 92.37 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday as global crude oil prices showed no signs of easing amid the ongoing West Asian conflict.
A stronger greenback, heavy FII selling and weak sentiments in the domestic equity markets further weighed on the rupee, according to forex traders.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit opened at 92.33 and slipped further to hit its record intra-day low of 92.37 against the US dollar, down 12 paise from its previous close.
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The rupee touched a fresh intra-day low of 92.36 on Thursday and closed the session 24 paise down at its lowest level of 92.25 against the US dollar.
"Oil prices remained elevated after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is closed permanently till the resolution of the crisis. The dollar index also rose, European and Asian currencies all fell against the dollar," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.
The rupee has remained vulnerable and in the absence of the RBI could have reached 93.00 levels, he added.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.04 per cent higher at 99.77.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 4.99 per cent at USD 96.57 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex plunged 560.06 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 75,474.36, while the Nifty tanked 184.45 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 23,454.70.
Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 7,049.87 crore on a net basis on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, retail inflation moved up to 3.21 per cent in February compared to 2.74 per cent in the preceding month, driven mainly by higher food prices, government data released on Thursday showed.
