US urges India to cooperate in investigation into death of Sikh leader in Canada
Washington, Sept 22 (EFE).- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that his government wants “accountability” for the murder of a Sikh leader in Canada, in which Ottawa has implicated Indian authorities, and urged India to cooperate in the investigation of the crime.
“We want to see accountability. And it’s important that the investigation run its course and lead to that result,” he said at a press conference during the UN General Assembly in New York.
“We would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well,” Blinken added.
The murder has sparked a diplomatic row between India and Canada after Ottawa this week accused New Delhi of involvement in the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Canadian temple last June.
Blinken didn’t comment directly on the substance of the allegations, but said the United States takes incidents of “transnational repression” “very, very seriously.”
“I think it’s important, more broadly, for the international system that any country that might consider engaging in such acts not do so,” he said.
Nijjar was accused by India of promoting anti-India sentiment among his minority community and was wanted on charges of terrorism and conspiracy to murder.
He was part of the Khalistan movement that advocates for a separate Sikh homeland and which was crushed by Indian security forces in the 1980s.
Although Indian media reported Friday that a second Sikh separatist, Sukhdool Singh Gill, was killed in Canada this week, neither Canadian authorities nor the Sikh community there have commented on the incident.EFE
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