Canadian PM Justin Trudeau claims he made allegations over Nijjar killing public to 'put a chill' on India

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a recent interview, has claimed that the allegations he levelled against India over its involvement in the killing of pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar were intended to "put a chill" on New Delhi amid strained diplomatic ties between the two countries.

While speaking to the Canadian Press in a year-end interview, Trudeau said that the statement he made on September18 in the House of Commons was meant to place an extra 'level of deterrence' for India to refrain from carrying out such acts in the future.

He further said that he wanted the Canadians to know that the government was on top of the situation and proactively taking measures.

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"Too many Canadians were worried that they were vulnerable," Trudeau said in the interview, adding that the Sikh community in British Columbia had been raising concerns since shortly after Nijjar was killed.

"We felt that all the quiet diplomacy and all the measures that we put in -- and ensured that our security services put in to keep people safe in the community, needed a further level of deterrence, perhaps of saying publicly and loudly that we know, or we have credible reasons to believe, that the Indian government was behind this," he said.

"And therefore put a chill on them continuing or considering doing anything like this," he added.

He also went on to claim that the Indian government chose to attack and undermine them with misinformation after he had made the allegations public and accused New Delhi of launching an information war.

"They chose to attack us and undermine us with a scale of misinformation and disinformation in their media that was comical," he said.

"(It) would have been more comical had it not had real implications for people's lives and relations between our two countries that are so deep in terms of people-to-people ties, and people depending on the flow of connections between us," he added.

'Difficult conversations'

Trudeau also stated that he raised the issue of Nijjar's killing with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during his bilateral talks in September at the time of G20 in New Delhi and was hoping for the conversation to be constructive.

However, on being asked if the discussion with Modi on the issue was helpful, the Canadian Prime Minister replied with a "No".

"We knew it would be difficult conversation, but we also knew that this was an important moment for India to be demonstrating its leadership on the world stage with the G20," Trudeau said.

"And we felt that we could use that as a constructive opportunity to work together."

India's Ministry of External Affairs, which has recently constituted a high-level inquiry committee to probe the alleged murder plot against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, maintains that Canada had given no evidence about its allegations and so the question of equitable treatment for the two countries does not arise.

(With inputs from agencies)