“We are not looking to provoke or escalate,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them, and we want to work with the government of India.”
As on Monday, when he first made his allegation in the House of Commons, the prime minister offered no details to support his charge that India was behind the shooting in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader, near a Sikh temple in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia. He has only cited “credible allegations,” which he said have been pursued by Canada’s security agencies for several weeks.
A Canadian government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said the intelligence had been gathered by multiple countries. Canada is a member of the so-called Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance that includes the United States, Britain and Australia. The Canadian security agencies, noting the continuing police investigation into the killing and the need to protect intelligence gathering methods, have declined to offer any more details.
The official said it is likely the intelligence will be made public when the investigations are complete. The government decided, the official said, to reveal the extraordinary allegation on Monday, Parliament’s first day back from its summer break, because of inquiries from journalists.
Once investigations are complete, the official said, it is likely that the specific findings behind Canada’s charge will be revealed.
India has long claimed that Canada is harboring Sikh terrorists plotting from abroad to fracture the Indian state by providing funding and working to create a separate Sikh nation called Khalistan that would include portions of India’s Punjab region.
Mr. Nijjar was active in that independence movement, and his participation featured prominently in India’s adamant denial of involvement in his killing.
As the foreign ministry of India said in a statement that it rejected “any attempts to connect the government of India” to Mr. Nijjar’s killing, it took the opportunity to admonish Canada, accusing it of sheltering “extremists and terrorists” who “continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Mr. Nijjar had been a key organizer in rallying community members in British Columbia to vote to establish Khalistan. The nonbinding vote, organized by a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit group called Sikhs For Justice, is being held in multiple cities around the world.