Heat On India: After US Alleges Pannun Assassination Plot, Canada Seeks Cooperation In Nijjar Probe

New Delhi: India is facing the heat on allegations of hatching plots to eliminate Khalistani extremists on foreign soil.

After the US recently alleged that an attempt to assassinate Sikhs for Justice leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had been foiled on American soil, Canada took the chance to lecture India and sought more cooperation from New Delhi in the ongoing murder investigation of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver.

“The news coming out of the United States further underscores what we’ve been talking about from the very beginning, which is that India needs to take this seriously,” Reuters quoted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as saying.

On Wednesday, the US Justice Department said it is charging 52-year-old Nikhil Gupta, who had worked with an Indian government employee, for plotting to kill Pannun by hiring a hit man.

The US allegation comes about two months after Canada claimed there were “credible” intel to believe that there were Indian links behind the killing of Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb in June.

“The Indian government needs to work with us to ensure that we get to the bottom of this,” Trudeau said.

India has dismissed Canada’s allegations, saying that no evidence was provide to back the claim.