U.S. Ambassador to Canada: Intelligence from the “Five Eyes Alliance” may prove the assassination of Indian agents

US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen confirmed that intelligence shared by the Five Eyes alliance “has notified Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau that Indian agents may be involved in the assassination of a Canadian Sikh leader.”

Cohen, U.S. Ambassador to Canada (file photo) Source: Associated Press

Reuters reported that Cohen said in an interview program broadcast by Canada’s CTV News Channel on Sunday (September 24): “What I want to say is that this is a question of intelligence sharing.” Although Cohen did not disclose it directly to CTV The type of intelligence the Canadian government gets, but Canada is a member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing network, which also includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

It is worth noting that, according to the “Global Times” report, Cohen also said that part of the intelligence used by Canada to accuse India was provided by a member state during the internal sharing of the “Five Eyes Alliance”. Although Cohen did not clearly specify who this member state is, the report quoted the New York Times as pointing out that this member state is the United States. However, the New York Times emphasized that based on what they obtained, the intelligence provided by the United States only helped Canada interpret the context and meaning of the surveillance information. The Canadian side issued a security warning to Nijar before he was killed, but Canada did not provide specific information about the assassin at that time.

Trudeau recently stated bluntly that Ottawa has reliable intelligence showing that Indian agents are related to the murder of exiled Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June.

He called on the Indian government “in the strongest terms” to cooperate in resolving the matter, saying “any foreign government involvement in the murder of Canadian citizens on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference: “We are deeply concerned about the allegations made by Prime Minister Trudeau… It is important that India cooperates with Canada in the investigation, and we want to see someone held accountable.”

Nijar was shot and killed on June 18 in a temple parking lot in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, home to the main Sikh community. Canada has the largest Sikh population outside the Indian state of Punjab. In addition, India listed Nijjar as a wanted terrorist, accusing him of launching terrorist attacks in India, but Nijjar denied this accusation.