OTTAWA, Sept 24 — United States (US) Ambassador to Canada David Cohen confirmed that ‘shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners’ had informed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the possible involvement of Indian agents in the murder of a Canadian citizen in June, CTV News reported.
Intelligence-sharing network Five Eyes includes the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Trudeau said on Monday (September 18) that Ottawa had credible intelligence linking Indian agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver, prompting an angry reaction from New Delhi, which denies the allegation.
“I will say this was a matter of shared intelligence information. There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this, and I think that is as far as I am comfortable going,” Cohen told CTV News in an interview aired on Sunday.
The Canadian government amassed intelligence from human and electronic sources in a months-long investigation into the murder, CBC News reported separately on Thursday (September 21).
Cohen did not comment to CTV News on the type of intelligence that had informed the Canadian government.
The US made clear on Friday (September 22) that it expected the Indian government to work with Canada on efforts to investigate the possible involvement of New Delhi agents in Nijjar’s murder.
“We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised.
“It would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to see accountability,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in a press briefing.
— Reuters
