“Canada should prove its allegations with evidence”: Omar Abdullah on Nijjar killing

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India]: Amid the India-Canada diplomatic tensions, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah on Thursday said that Canada should share the evidence to prove its allegations against India made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

“Canada is alleging that India did some incident in that country. They should share the evidence with India,” the National Conference leader told reporters here.

“It is unfortunate. The two countries shared good relations…The tension in the relations is not good. Canada says that India carried out an incident there. Show the evidence. Doing that verbally is a different thing. Prove it with evidence,” Omar told reporters on Thursday in Srinagar.

The NC leader said that India also reiterated its stance in the United Nations General Assembly.

“EAM said that if you have even the smallest of evidence, show us. As of now, no evidence has been shared with India. Do that. If India will have to take any action after that, it will be done. However, evidence should be shared with India,” he said.

He was responding to Trudeau’s allegations of the Indian government’s involvement in the fatal shooting of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has assured the Canadian side to take action if they provide specific information in connection with Nijjar’s killing, adding “We are open to looking at it.”

Speaking at a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Jaishankar said, “We told the Canadians that this is not the government of India’s policy. Secondly, we said if you have something specific and if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it…The picture is not complete without the context in a way”.

Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Jaishankar further said that there has been a lot of “organised crime” in Canada in the last few years, and the Indian government has given a lot of information to Canada regarding this.