How American CIA ditched Indian RAW?
Shares
NEW YORK- American spy agencies gave assistance, but communications intercepted by Canada were more definitive in linking India to the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar that has heightened tensions between Canada and India, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Quoting Western allied officials, the leading American newspaper said US intelligence agencies offered their Canadian counterparts context that helped Canada conclude that India had been involved. Yet, it said, what appears to be the “smoking gun,” intercepted communications of Indian diplomats in Canada indicating involvement in the plot.
While US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on India to cooperate with the Canadian investigation, American officials have largely tried to avoid triggering any diplomatic blowback from India, it was pointed out.
But the disclosure of the involvement of US intelligence risks ensnaring Washington in the diplomatic battle between Canada and India at a time when it is keen to develop New Delhi as a closer partner, the report said.
The US did not learn about the plot or evidence pointing to India’s involvement in it, until after operatives had killed the Sikh leader, Nijjar, the Times said, quoting allied officials.
Two men fatally shot Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who had advocated independence for the Indian Punjab, in the Vancouver area on June 18.
In New York, Pakistan said it was not “surprised” by Canada’s revelations that the Indian government was involved in the murder of the pro-Khalistan leader.
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar linked the episode to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ideology of Hindu nationalism or Hindutva.
“These ideologues of Hindutva, they are becoming emboldened in a manner that they are now going beyond the region,” Kakar said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York as he took part in the UN General Assembly.
The “unfortunate killing of Mr Singh on Canadian soil is a reflection of that ominous tendency,” Kakar said.- APP/AFP
