The purported video footage of the killing of India designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar has surfaced, showing Nijjar being shot by armed men in what has been described a ‘contract killing’.
Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2020, was shot and killed as he came out of a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on the evening of June 18, 2023.
The video has been obtained by The Fifth Estate and has been independently verified by more than one source said CBC news. The attack that is described as being ‘highly coordinated’ involved six men and two vehicles.
The apparent targeted killing of the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara ultimately led to accusations from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the government of India had a hand in the killing — a claim that denied by India and led to the deterioration of diplomatic ties between Canada and India.
The video shows Nijjar leaving the parking lot of the Gurdwara in his grey Dodge Ram pickup truck. As he approaches the exit, a white sedan pulls in front of him, blocking his truck. Two men then run up and shoot Nijjar before escaping in a silver Toyota Camry.
The two witnesses, who were playing soccer in a field nearby when the incident happened, revealed that they ran towards the place from where the gunshots were heard and also tried to chase the assailants.
“We saw those two guys running,” Bhupinderjit Singh Sidhu, a witness told The Fifth Estate. “We started running towards…where the sound was coming from.”
Sidhu told his friend, Malkit Singh, to chase the two men on foot while he tried to help Nijjar. “I tried to press his chest and tried to shake him to see if he was breathing. But he was totally unconscious. He was not breathing,” he said. Malkit Singh said he chased the two men until they got into the Toyota Camry.
“A car came from around the alley and they got into it. There were three others sitting in that car,” Singh said. “We could smell the smoke from the guns, the smell of the guns was everywhere.”
Meanwhile, almost nine months later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is yet to name suspects or make arrests in a relation to Nijjar’s killing. Nijjar’s death also sparked a massive diplomatic row between India and Canada.
In September last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made allegations of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s killing on Canadian soil. India had however, rejected the allegations, calling them “absurd and motivated.”
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Canada has not been able to present any evidence to back its claims over the killing.
(with inputs from ANI)
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