U.S assassination plot indictment validates Trudeau on India: ex-CSIS heads

globalnews.ca:

One of Canada’s former top spies says that the American indictment linking an alleged assassination attempt orchestrated by an Indian government employee re-enforces the validity of allegations made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September.

Trudeau alleged that Canada had intelligence that agents of the Indian government may have been involved in the murder of Sikh separatist activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in B.C. this summer.

“I thought the fact that the prime minister actually made such an announcement in the House suggested that they had pretty strong intelligence. So, yes, this does pretty much confirm it,” former CSIS director Ward Elcock told Global News.

A fellow former CSIS director and Trudeau’s first national security advisor Dick Fadden shares Elcock’s assessment.

“That certainly I think vindicates anything and everything the prime minister said. I didn’t think he’d say what he did about India without it being true. But, boy, this in spades confirms what he said,” Fadden said.

The American indictment alleges that an employee of the Indian government, referred to as CC-1, hired Indian national Nikhil Gupta, age 52, to organize the assassination of a Sikh separatist activist in New York City.

Responding on Thursday, India expressed concern about one of its government officials being linked to the plot, from which it dissociated itself as being against government policy.

It’s alleged that CC-1 was also responsible for helping organize the June 18 killing of Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in Surrey B.C. and was in contact with Gupta about the murder.

On June 18, hours after Nijjar’s murder, it’s alleged in the indictment that CC-1 sent Gupta a video clip showing Nijjar’s body slumped in his vehicle. The next