Trudeau: Canada shared evidence implicating India in Sikh's slaying 'weeks ago'

Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada shared intelligence "many weeks ago" with its allies showing India was behind the slaying of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil earlier this year.

Trudeau made the comments about the still-unsolved killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Friday while speaking at a joint news conference in Ottawa with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska were in the Canadian capital as part of a planned trip to address a joint session of the country's Parliament.

"Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday with India," Trudeau said. "We did that many weeks ago...We hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter. That's important."

He said the information exchange included informing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 summit in New Delhi earlier this month about the assassination allegations.

Trudeau has declined to elaborate on the specifics of the evidence implicating India.

Modi and India have vehemently denied the allegations and responded by suspending visa services for Canadians looking to travel there. Canada previously expelled the head of India's foreign intelligence agency in Canada.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday urged India to cooperate with an investigation into the matter being led by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"We've been consulting throughout, very closely, with our Canadian colleagues -- not just consulting, coordinating," Blinken Friday during a briefing session in New York City.

"We are extremely vigilant about any instances of alleged transnational repression -- it's something we take very, very seriously."

Nijjar was gunned down in June in broad daylight in a parking lot near Vancouver, British Columbia. Police have not made any arrests in the 45-year-old's death.

The temple leader and vocal supporter of an independent Sikh nation of Khalistan was reportedly being visited on a weekly basis by members of the country's intelligence agency.

Nijjar immigrated to Canada in 1997 and had become a growing target for the Indian government. New Delhi issued a warrant for his arrest, linking him to the 2007 bombing of a Punjab cinema that left six people dead.

India's counterterrorism agency last year posted a $16,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.