Multiple shots were fired at a residence in South Surrey in Canada, believed to be the house of Simranjeet Singh, a close aid of slain India-designated Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Candian media reports said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) confirmed the shooting incident and said, “… shots fired at a residence in the 2800-block of 154 Street. Frontline officers attended the scene and located evidence consistent with a shooting. No injuries were reported.”
The RCMP said it has deployed cops in the area, examining the scene, talking to witnesses and scrutinising the neighbourhood for CCTV footage, but pro-Khalistan groups allege Indian involvement, citing Simranjeet’s role in organising a protest outside the Indian Consulate in Vancouver on January 26.
CBC News quoted Moninder Singh, spokesperson for the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council and also a prominent separatist in Canada, saying Simranjeet Singh “feels like this is the Indian state, or their actors, that are playing their part here to kind of scare them off from… the activism work that he’s doing.”
Moninder further said he believed Simranjeet Singh’s connection to Hardeep Singh Nijjar could have been a factor.
According to Surrey detachment of RCMP, the incident of firing occurred in the early hours of Thursday (1 February, 2024) and eyewitnesses said a car parked at the residence as well as the home were riddled with bullets.
“The Surrey RCMP Major Crime Section has conduct of the investigation and investigators believe this was an isolated incident. Officers are still working to determine the motive of this incident,” RCMP said.
India-Canada ties touched rock bottom after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last September claimed there were “credible allegations” that the Indian government may have been involved in the killing of Nijjar, in Surrey in June 2023.
India strongly denied the allegations, terming them absurd and motivated. The relations between the two countries have been strained ever since.
In December last year, Trudeau claimed that he had made the allegations public as he expected the information to be leaked.
With inputs from agencies
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