View: Ripudaman Malik’s murder conspiracy has answers to Nijjar’s killing

Nearly two weeks after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the podium in Canadian Parliament to accuse the Modi government of ordering an extra-judicial killing of Khalistan Tiger Force operational chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18, New Delhi is still waiting for Ottawa to name the killer Indian agent and the evidence for the same.

Even though the Canadian police has described it as an investigation in progress, it did not stop the maverick Canadian Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister to accuse India without an investigation being completed. He based his “credible allegation” on intelligence provided by the Five Eyes alliance.

Events pieced together by Hindustan Times since the gunning down of Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Sikh activist acquitted in the 1985 Air India Kanishka terror bombing, on July 15, 2022, in Surrey, shows that this British Columbia town outside Vancouver is a toxic mix of Sikh politics in Canada. While two persons—Tanner Fox from Abbotsford and Jose Lopez from New Westminster—were arrested by Canadian Mounties, the investigation did not investigate the conspiracy behind the assassination and the role played by Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Moninder Boyle in the killing. Clearly, Fox and Lopez were hitmen used by rivals of Ripudaman Singh Malik--who had praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a letter in February 2022 for his efforts towards the Sikh community in India—but the investigation into the conspiracy was never conducted thanks to vote bank politics of the Justin Trudeau government.

Nijjar, who not only was the KTF chief in Canada but also the representative of proscribed Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a terror organization run by dual citizenship holder G S Pannu, for promoting the Referendum 2020 campaign, was riddled by assassin’s bullet on June 18 at the same Surrey town, where Malik was killed an year earlier.

Credible intelligence inputs reveal that Nijjar, President of Guru Nanak Temple, and former President Moninder Singh Boyle of another gurudwara, Sri Dashmesh Darbar, along with their coterie including local radicalized journalists started harassing Malik after he returned a changed man from India in 2019. Ripu Malik obtained written permission to print copies of Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) at his facility in Canada from the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) after his meetings with the Akal Takht Jathedar and SGPC officials in India. Feeling that they were losing control of the Khalistan movement in the nondescript Surrey town in the back of beyond BC, Canada, Nijjar and Boyle launched a full-fledged campaign against Malik and soundly criticized the Jathedar and the SGPC. The duo printed and distributed pamphlets labelling Malik as “Quam ka Gaddar.” On January 23, 2021, Nijjar delivered a speech from his Guru Nanak Temple premises and asked the present public to teach Malik a lesson and socially boycott him.

Nijjar, Boyle and their radicalized Sikh gang then orchestrated a campaign against Malik by spreading rumours that the Holy Book published by the Kanishka bombing accused were full of mistakes, tatamounting to “beadbi”, and hence wanted the SGPC permission to be revoked. Under pressure Akal Takht Jathedar asked the British Columbia Gurudwara Council to seize all the printed copies of SGGS from Malik’s premises. Nijjar and Boyle seized the copies immediately as well as the printing machines but refused to return the machines even after it was found that there were no mistakes in the Holy Book.

When Akal Takht Jathedar was scheduled to visit Malik in Canada in June 2022, Moninder Boyle wrote a letter casting aspersions at the Jathedar himself in order to pre-empt any chance of Malik again getting permission to print the SGGS. Nijjar-Boyle accused the Jathedar of trying to create a divide in the Sikh community by promoting Malik. Jathedar had no options but to cancel his visit to Surrey. While Boyle wrote the letter on June 13, 2022, Malik himself in two interviews to the media testified that he was under threat. Malik openly accused Nijjar and Boyle of working against the interests of the Sikh maryada and community. Though Boyle in his letter to Jathedar claimed that he was writing the missive in his capacity as spokesperson of the British Columbia Gurudwara Council, a conglomeration of 8-9 gurudwaras, at least seven gurudwaras denied knowledge of any such letter sent to Jathedar by Boyle.

After Malik was gunned down, terrorists like Pannun can in support of Nijjar saying that he was being targeted solely for his dissenting political opinion. The abnormal behaviour of Nijjar and Boyle after Malik’s murder raises serious doubts about the police investigations into the entire affair. Rather than blaming India for Nijjar’s killing, it would be better for Canadian Mounties to look for clues in the Malik’s assassination.