The death of a Khalistani separatist leader sparked an international crisis between India and Canada this week. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed on Monday that there are “credible reasons to believe that Indian government agents are involved” in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nigar. US envoy David Cohen confirmed today that this confirmation came after “shared intelligence information between the partners of the Five Eyes organization.”
“There was intelligence shared between Five Eyes partners that helped lead Canada to make the statements the Prime Minister made. In the days that followed, as diplomatic tensions continued to rise — from Canada reassessing its staff in India, to India suspending visa services for Canadians “There have been mounting questions about what the intelligence was at the heart of this story, who knew about it, and when,” the US ambassador to Canada told CTV News.
Five Eyes is an intelligence group that includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It entails both surveillance-based intelligence and signals intelligence. This is the first acknowledgment by any US government official about intelligence sharing between Five Eyes partners with Canada.
A diplomatic storm erupted earlier this week after Trudeau linked Indian officials to the June killing. Carpenter, a Canadian citizen, was killed in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18. He was a wanted terrorist in India.
Earlier Friday, the United States called on the Indian government to work with Canada in efforts to investigate the murder.
“We have been consulting very closely with our Canadian colleagues — not just consulting and coordinating with them — on this issue. From our perspective, it is important that the Canadian investigation continues, and it will be important that India works with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to “We want to see accountability, and it is important that the investigation takes its course and leads to that outcome.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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