US deeply concerned about allegations raised by Trudeau against India: Blinken

New York: The US is “deeply concerned” about the allegations raised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India on the killing of a Khalistani separatist in Canada, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said and Washington was “closely coordinating” with Ottawa on the issue and wants to see “accountability” in the case.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, Blinken said the US has engaged directly with the Indian government on the issue and the most productive thing would be the completion of this investigation. “Let me say a few things about this. First, we are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised,” the top US diplomat said in response to a question on Trudeau’s allegations against India. Trudeau said in the Canadian Parliament earlier this week that “Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing” of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia.

“We have been consulting throughout very closely with our Canadian colleagues and not just consulting, coordinating with them on this issue.

And from our perspective, it is critical that the Canadian investigation proceed, and it would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to see accountability, and it’s important that the investigation run its course and lead to that result,” Blinken said.

The top US diplomat was also asked about reports that President Joe Biden brought the issue up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi “personally”. “I’m not going to characterise or otherwise speak to diplomatic conversations that we have,” Blinken said.

“We’ve been engaged directly with the Indian government as well. And again, I think the most productive thing that can happen now is to see this investigation move forward and be completed. And we would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well.

“More broadly and you’ve heard me speak to this we are extremely vigilant about any instances of alleged transnational repression, something we take very, very seriously. And I think it’s important more broadly for the international system that any country that might consider engaging in such acts not do so. So it’s something that we’re also focused on in a much broader way.” Nijjar, 45, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), was one of India’s most-wanted terrorists who carried a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

Tensions flared between India and Canada early this week following Trudeau’s explosive allegations.

India angrily rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”, and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

While Canada hasn’t yet provided any public evidence to back its claims, a media report citing Canadian government sources said that Ottawa’s allegations are based on both human and signals intelligence and inputs from an ally the Five Eye intelligence network.