Three Indian men were charged in the brazen killing of a Sikh nationalist on Canadian soil, the police said on Friday, a killing that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed on “agents of the government of India,” setting off a diplomatic feud with New Delhi and leading to the tit-for-tat expulsions of each country’s diplomats.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a news conference on Friday that the three suspects had been arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of the Sikh nationalist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June.
The police identified the three suspects as Karan Brar, 22; Kamalpreet Singh, 22; and Karampreet Singh, 28. They said the men had been living in Canada for three to five years but were not permanent residents of Canada.
“This investigation does not end here,” Superintendent Mandeep Mooker, head of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team for the Mounties., said at a news conference on Friday. “We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide, and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals.”
Several other investigations are ongoing, including exploring any involvement by the Indian government in Mr. Nijjar’s killing, Assistant Commissioner David Teboul of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at the news conference.
He also said that the relationship with Indian partners in investigating the killing had been challenging, but provided no further details. The Indian government strongly denied the accusation.
Mr. Nijjar was a leader in the local Khalistan movement, which seeks to create a separate Sikh nation in India that includes the northern state of Punjab.
He was born in Punjab and moved to Canada in the heat of India’s crackdown on Sikh leaders in the 1990s, according to Indian media reports. He was the leader of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, a city outside Vancouver that is home to one of the largest Sikh populations in Canada.
The Indian government labeled Mr. Nijjar a terrorist in 2020 and called for his arrest.
Mr. Nijjar had been one of several Sikh community members warned about threats on their lives by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the federal New Democratic Party who represents a British Columbia district, testified last month at a foreign-interference inquiry that he had also been warned by the police of potential threats against his life.
The public inquiry, which delivered its interim report on Friday, was established last September after increasing political pressure against Mr. Trudeau to investigate allegations that countries like China and India had interfered in Canadian elections.
The report found that Indian intelligence officials used proxies in Canada to influence communities and politicians, with a special interest in the Khalistan movement.
The arrest of the men accused of carrying out Mr. Nijjar’s killing will provide little comfort to the Sikh community if Indian officials implicated in the killing and other interference activities are not also held accountable, said Balpreet Singh Boparai, a Toronto-based lawyer at the World Sikh Organization of Canada.
“We just hope that Canada has the guts to be transparent and identify those individuals who are behind this plot,” he said.
Other than a map outlining the getaway vehicle’s route and some grainy images of the assailants, the police investigating Mr. Nijjar’s murder over the last year have released little information on their progress.
In December, sources who spoke to The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, said arrests were imminent, but the passing months had left some in the community concerned that the first anniversary of Mr. Nijjar’s death in June would pass with no resolution.
“We would not be at this point without the bravery and the courage of the Sikh community coming forward,” said Superintendent Mandeep Mooker, a homicide investigator for the Mounties.
Mihika Agarwal contributed reporting from Surrey, British Columbia.
