An Indian government spokesman said the moment of silence for Hardeep Singh Nijjar amounted to ‘giving political space to extremism’
The Indian government is lashing out at Canada after its House of Commons gave a moment of silence for a man that New Delhi considered a wanted terrorist.
On the afternoon of June 18, the assembled House of Commons stood for a moment of silence to mark the one-year anniversary of the Surrey, B.C., shooting death of Sikh separatist figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Official Parliamentary video then shows MPs from both the government and opposition benches rising in quiet commemoration.
Freeland replied that the gesture was to recognize “the murder of a Canadian in Canada … and that that is entirely unacceptable.” She then praised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his condemnation of the murder.
“I think all of us should feel safer and more secure knowing that (Trudeau) will stand for Canadians and against the killers of Canadians,” she said.
Nijjar was shot to death last year in a coordinated attack outside Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. Last month, the RCMP arrested three Indian nationals in connection with the murder, and they now face first degree murder charges.
In September, the Nijjar killing would become the centre of a public breakdown in India-Canada relations after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of staging Nijjar’s assassination.
“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” was how Trudeau announced it to the House of Commons.
Canada has never publicly provided any evidence to this effect, but in November, an unsealed U.S. indictment laid out the details of an alleged assassination ring operated by Indian government operatives. The indictment includes testimony from a police informant allegedly alluding to Nijjar’s assassination in Surrey.
Nijjar always denied the Indian terror allegations, and said that his support for Khalistani independence was purely peaceful.
The Parliamentary moment of silence was staged just five days before the anniversary of the 1985 Air India bombing, a terrorist attack staged by Sikh extremists that still ranks as the deadliest mass murder in Canadian history.
It’s for this reason that Canada has enshrined the June 23 anniversary as the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism.
“Unfortunately, many Canadians are not aware that even today the ideology responsible for this terrorist attack is still alive among a few people in Canada,” he said.
In a statement on Sunday, Trudeau said the Air India bombing “reminds us of the senseless violence that terrorism perpetuates and of our shared responsibility to unequivocally condemn terrorism.”