NEW DELHI: A Canadian minister admitted before a parliamentary panel that he outed Union home minister Amit Shah’s name to a US newspaper as having allegedly ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation, and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told members of the national security committee that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations in connection with the murder of Khalistani radical Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June last year.
But Morrison did not share any proof of Shah’s alleged involvement in the case.
“The journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee.
Bilateral relations went into deeper freeze after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently alleged that the Indian government had a role in the killing Nijjar. Both sides expelled six diplomats each.
While India accuses Canada of not even sharing a shread of evidence to support its theory, the latter claims it has ample proof.
Nathalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security adviser, told the committee that Canada has evidence to prove India gathered information on Indian nationals and Canadians in Canada through diplomatic channels and proxies. The information was then passed on to a gangster, Lawrence Bishnoi.