Video shows alleged contract killing of B.C. Sikh leader
Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death sparked Canada-India diplomatic row
Exclusive security video obtained by The Fifth Estate reveals the elements of a highly co-ordinated attack that ended with the killing of a prominent Canadian Sikh separatist.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed as he left his place of worship in Surrey, B.C., on the evening of June 18, 2023. The video has been independently verified by more than one source.
The apparent targeted killing of the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara ultimately led to accusations from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the government of India ordered the killing — a claim that severely damaged diplomatic ties between Canada and India.
The video shows Nijjar leaving the parking lot of the gurdwara in his grey Dodge Ram pickup truck.
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Watch the full documentary, "Contract to Kill," from The Fifth Estate on YouTube or CBC-TV at 9 p.m. ET. It will also stream on CBC Gem.
As he approaches the exit, a white sedan pulls in front of him, blocking his truck. Two men then run up and shoot Nijjar before escaping in a silver Toyota Camry.
The Fifth Estate spoke to two witnesses who were playing soccer in a field nearby when they heard the gunshots.
"We saw those two guys running," said Bhupinderjit Singh Sidhu. "We started running towards … where the sound was coming from."
Sidhu told his friend, Malkit Singh, to chase the two men on foot while he tried to help Nijjar.
"I tried to press his chest and tried to shake him to see if he was breathing. But he was totally unconscious. He was not breathing."
Malkit Singh said he chased the two men until they got into the Toyota Camry.
"A car came from around the alley and they got into it. There were three others sitting in that car," said Singh. "We could smell the smoke from the guns, the smell of the guns was everywhere."
The co-ordinated attack involved six men and two vehicles.
Almost nine months later, the RCMP has yet to name suspects or make arrests in relation to Nijjar's death.
'Unacceptable violation of our sovereignty'
But in September, Trudeau accused the Indian government of orchestrating the killing of Nijjar.
"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," Trudeau said in the House of Commons on Sept. 18.
"Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty."
The allegation sparked a diplomatic crisis, with India denying its involvement.
In January, Trudeau's former national security and intelligence adviser, Jody Thomas, said Canada is "working back toward a healthier relationship" with India after months of tense relations following Nijjar's killing.
An alleged foiled plot
For months, Indian media questioned Trudeau's allegation and demanded to see the evidence.
It wasn't until November that evidence turned up in New York City when a U.S. indictment was unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice, revealing details of an alleged foiled plot to kill another Canadian Sikh. The planning of that alleged contract killing in the U.S. took place in the weeks leading up to Nijjar's killing in Canada.
The indictment, which has not been tested in court, accuses Indian national Nikhil Gupta of attempting to arrange the killing of a lawyer in New York City at the behest of an unnamed Indian government employee.
According to the indictment, the plot was foiled when Gupta mistakenly reached out for help hiring a hitman to a person who turned out to be a confidential informant reporting to U.S. law enforcement.
Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic on June 30, 2023, on charges of conspiring to murder and is awaiting extradition to the U.S.
However, the indictment also revealed allegations that the Indian government was planning at least three more killings in Canada last June.
The document alleges that just hours after Nijjar was killed on June 18, Gupta sent a video of Nijjar's body to the person he was trying to hire as a contract killer and told him to kill the New York target "quickly."
The fight for an independent Khalistan
The alleged New York target has since been revealed to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual Canadian-American citizen and a staunch ally of Nijjar in the fight for an independent Sikh homeland in northern India to be called Khalistan.
In an interview with The Fifth Estate, Pannun talked about their close friendship and shared commitment to campaigning for Khalistan.
"The first call I used to get was from Hardeep Singh Nijjar," said Pannun. In Surrey, Nijjar ran a plumbing business, but each day after Nijjar finished work, Pannun said he would get a call from him to plan their next move in the campaign for an independent Khalistan.
"He showed his commitment day in and day out, and over the years," said the New York-based lawyer.
The two spoke on the phone the day before Nijjar was killed.
"[Nijjar] told me that Canadian intelligence agencies have approached him just a day before that and they warned him that his life is in danger," Pannun told The Fifth Estate's Bob McKeown. "That day, he sounded very, very concerned."
Referendums around the world
Both men have been leaders in the Sikh separatist movement that aims to carve out a country to be called Khalistan from the Indian state of Punjab. The Indian government considers the movement a security threat and has labelled many of its leaders terrorists — including Nijjar and Pannun in 2020.
For the last several years, Pannun has been organizing non-binding referendums around the world for Sikhs to vote on whether or not they support the creation of Khalistan.
Tens of thousands of Sikhs have shown up to cast ballots in referendums in London, Melbourne, Rome, Geneva, and in Canada — namely in Brampton and Mississauga in the Greater Toronto Area, and in Surrey.
The Fifth Estate gained exclusive access to Pannun as he travelled to San Francisco in late January to hold the first referendum for Khalistan on American soil.
As general counsel for the pro-Khalistan U.S.-based group Sikhs for Justice, Pannun is known widely for the videos he posts online in which he makes inflammatory statements about the Indian government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including one in which he labels Modi a "Hindu terrorist."
Sikh leaders marked for death
Pannun believes the non-binding referendums are the reason he and Nijjar became targets of the Indian government.
"We follow the international laws and we campaign [to] let the Sikh people, the indigenous people of Punjab, [to] give them a chance to vote," he said. "That's the reason they killed Nijjar, that's the reason they wanted to kill me, to stop a peaceful democratic process of Khalistan referendum."
Pannun said he has no doubt that Modi ordered the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and he believes others are implicated.
The Indian High Commission in Ottawa declined The Fifth Estate's request for an interview.
Pannun and Nijjar appear not to be the only targets in the Canadian Sikh community.
The Fifth Estate met with five men from Surrey who said they have been served with "duty to warn" notices by the RCMP.
The notices are served to individuals the police believe are likely targeted and in imminent danger due to threats to their life.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was visited by RCMP officers and given a duty to warn two days before he was killed.
Other targeted killings in Canada?
The multiple duty to warn notices and the details of the U.S. indictment that point to "three targets" in Canada have left some wondering whether there have been other killings of Sikhs in Canada orchestrated by the Indian government.
"There might already have been others," former CSIS director Ward Elcock told CBC's Power and Politics on Nov. 29, 2023. "Because there have already been a number of killings of Sikhs in Canada, which have gone unsolved."
In July 2022, 72-year-old Ripudaman Singh Malik was shot and killed in Surrey, B.C., in a manner similar to Nijjar.
Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the B.C. Gurdwaras Council, believes there is a connection between the two killings.
"I think there is definitely within the community more of an inclination towards that [Malik's death] also was the hand of the Indian government through their intelligence operatives," he said.
Moninder Singh himself was served a duty to warn notice in July 2022, shortly after Ripudaman Singh Malik was killed.
A polarizing figure, Malik was one of the men acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombings.
He was shot while sitting in his red Tesla outside his business. Like Nijjar, police believe there are two suspected shooters in Malik's killing who escaped in a vehicle.
The trial for the two men arrested and charged in connection with Malik's death is set to begin in October.
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