Nijjar’s son, 21, said his father met officers of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) “once or twice a week,” including one or two days before his murder, Vancouver Sun quoted him as saying. His father was scheduled to meet CSIS two days after his death, he added.
In an interview, Nijjar’s son said that the meetings began in February and had increased in frequency in the months leading up to the killing.
He further said that he also attended one such meeting, where the officers informed them about threats to his father’s life. “He was advised to stay at home,” he told the Vancouver Sun.
Balraj Singh Nijjar further said his father had received several threatening messages for his advocacy of Sikh independence.
“If you don’t stop talking about Khalistan, we’ll kill you,” he said.Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that the Indian government was behind the killing of 45-year-old Nijjar, a claim India rejected as “absurd” and “motivated”.This followed a spree of tit-for-tat moves with both India and Ottawa’s expelling senior diplomats, India also suspended its visa services and issued an advisory for its citizens to exercise “utmost caution in view of growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence” in the country.
Last Thursday, Trudeau said his country stands by the international rules-based order and repeated his charge on India’s role in the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar stating that there are “credible reasons” to believe the same.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has assured the Canadian side to take action if they provide specific information in connection with Nijjar’s killing, adding “We are open to looking at it.”
Speaking at a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Tuesay, Jaishankar said, “We told the Canadians that this is not the government of India’s policy. Secondly, we said if you have something specific and if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it…The picture is not complete without the context in a way”.
Notably, Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Jaishankar further said that there has been a lot of “organised crime” in Canada in the last few years, and the Indian government has given a lot of information to Canada regarding this.