Assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada came after ‘secret Indian memo’ ordered ‘concrete measures’ against the dissident

The 45-year-old Nijjar was reportedly killed on June 18 when he was gunned down in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak temple. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decried the killing in September and accused the Indian government of being responsible for the attack.

As this was transpiring, India's government reportedly directed its consulates in North America to work on a “sophisticated crackdown scheme” against various Sikh diaspora organizations throughout the West. This came to light in a secret memorandum that India’s Ministry of External Affairs put out in April 2023, per The Intercept.

The April memo lists several Sikh activist organizations, accusing them of engaging in "anti-India propaganda" and undertaking acts of "arson and vandalism" against Indian interests in North America, suggesting that Nijjar and other "suspects" are affiliated with Babbar Khalsa International.

The Indian Government told The Intercept “there is no such memo.”

“We strongly assert that such reports are fake and completely fabricated,” Indian spokesperson Shri Arindam Bagchi wrote.

Statements issued by both US and Canadian officials claim that intercepted communications of Indian government officials confirm that India played a role in Nijjar’s murder.

Sikh advocates often argue that the Indian government simply labels dissidents as being extreme or terroristic in an effort to discredit them.

“The Indian government and media consistently aim to manufacture a narrative that describes any type of political advocacy for Khalistan or Sikh sovereignty as ‘Sikh extremism’ as a pretext to justify a repressive security-based response,” explained Prabjot Singh, who works activist and editor of the Panth-Punjab Project, an online platform that specializes in Sikh politics and social issues. “It’s important to recognize that this is a strategy that India employs in Punjab to justify crackdowns on Sikh political organizing, while misusing diplomatic resources abroad to try and enlist other countries as partners in this effort.”

While Sikh separatism has largely been quashed in India, it has spread worldwide as diaspora organize protests and lobbies against the Indian government around the globe in hopes that a referendum can one day be held in Punjab.

Just months after Trudeau’s accusation, the US Justice Department issued an indictment that alleges Indian intelligence agents also attempted to assassinate Sikhs for Justice general counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American citizen based in New York. The Southern District of New York reported that the assassination plot was stopped after a person working for the Indian government hired an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent to commit the killing.

India's government often accuses groups of Sikh activists of being terrorists during discussions it holds with the Canadian and US governments. This has seemingly served as a tension point between India and the West.

“Notably, we have raised our concerns about those elements to the US and Canada constantly. But they keep using human rights and freedom of speech as pretexts, asserting that these organizations have not committed any crime within their territories,” reads a classified memo signed by Foreign Secretary of India Vinay Kwatra. “Although the relation between India and the West continues to gain momentum, the Khalistan issue has become a subtle leverage. While depicting India as a strategic partner to contain China and Russia, the West keeps utilizing Khalistan as a geopolitical tool to squeeze India amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

Assassination plots against diaspora Sikh dissidents have occurred in nations outside the West as well; classified Pakistani intelligence documents reportedly reveal that a Sikh activist in Pakistan named Lakhbir Singh Rode and another unnamed person were also targeted by India. The Intercept additionally reports that at least two other Sikh dissidents in Pakistan were killed in recent years.