Hardeep Singh Nijjar (11 October 197718 June 2023) was a Canadian Sikh involved with the Khalistan movement. He was a prominent member of the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and spearheaded the group's Khalistan Referendum campaign.
Born in India, Nijjar emigrated to Canada in the mid-1990s. The Indian government accused him of being a criminal and terrorist affiliated with the militant Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), and sought his arrest. Nijjar and his supporters rejected these allegations, saying he advocated peaceful means for creation of Khalistan. In 2016, Nijjar was placed on Canada's No Fly List and had his personal bank accounts frozen following allegations of his involvement in "terror training camps". Nijjar gained prominence in 2019, when he became the leader of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, and became an advocate of Sikh separatism.
On 18 June 2023, Nijjar was shot and killed in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. On 18 September 2023, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau stated that Canadian intelligence agencies were "pursuing credible allegations of a potential link" between Indian government agents and the assassination of Nijjar. After the killing, Canada expelled an Indian diplomat from the country. India's foreign ministry denied involvement in the killing, and expelled a top Canadian diplomat as a retaliatory measure. These measures sparked a diplomatic row.
In May 2024, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested three Indian nationals, who were charged with killing Nijjar. The Canadian investigations are ongoing, including into possible connections between the killing and the Indian government. In October 2024, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including the High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, as persona non grata. This occurred after Canada said they provided India with "irrefutable evidence" of links between Indian government agents and the murders of both Nijjar and Sukhdool Singh, who was shot in Winnipeg on 20 September 2023; Canadian officials say that the six officials were "directly involved in gathering detailed intelligence on Sikh separatists who were then killed, attacked or threatened by India's criminal proxies". India responded by calling the claims "preposterous" and expelling six Canadian diplomats in a tit-for-tat move.
On July 8, 2026, the US charged Lawrence Bishnoi and his associates with the killing of Nijjar. The indictment does not allege any Indian government role in the killing. The US is seeking extradition of Bishnoi, who is in prison in India.
Early life and immigration to Canada Hardeep Singh Nijjar was born on October 11, 1977, in Bhar Singh Pura, a village in the Phillaur tehsil of the Jalandhar district, of Punjab, India. Nijjar's family had often provided refuge to Sikh militants in the midst of the Punjab insurgency, Nijjar claimed that he was inspired to join the Sikh militant movement by Anokh Singh Babbar, a founding member of the Babbar Khalsa, and a frequent visitor to the Nijjar farm. He migrated to Canada in the mid-1990s. According to The Tribune, Nijjar was arrested in India in 1995 amidst a crackdown on the armed insurgency in Punjab. According to The Globe and Mail, Nijjar told his friends that he was apprehended by the police because of his association with the architects of the 1995 assassination of Indian Punjab's chief minister, Beant Singh; a claim he withheld from Canadian immigration authorities. Nijjar emigrated to Canada in the mid-1990s.
Nijjar arrived in Canada on 10 February 1997, using a fraudulent passport that identified him as "Ravi Sharma", and made a refugee claim. In a sworn affidavit, he indicated that his brother, father and uncle had all been arrested, and he himself had been tortured by police. His claim was rejected, as officials thought his documentation was partially fabricated; officials suspected that a letter, supposedly written by an Indian physician and attesting to his torture, was forged. The panel wrote that it did "not believe that the claimant was arrested by the police and that he was tortured by the police."
Eleven days after his claim was denied, Nijjar married a woman who sponsored his immigration. Officials noted that the woman had arrived in Canada in 1997, married to another man, and rejected the claim as a marriage of convenience. In 2001, Nijjar appealed this ruling but lost.
He was ultimately permitted entry into Canada. According to Marc Miller, the Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Nijjar became a Canadian citizen on 25 May 2007.
Involvement with Sikh organisations In Canada, Nijjar operated a plumbing business and was married with two sons.Sammy Westfall & Lyric Li, Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh separatist killed in Canada? , Washington Post (September 19, 2023). He lived in Surrey, British Columbia, where he was a leader of the local Sikh community. Nijjar gained prominence in 2019, when he became the leader of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, and became an advocate of Sikh separatism. He became the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, a Sikh temple in Surrey, in 2019. The New York Times described the congregation as "the oldest, largest and most politically powerful of the dozen or so Sikh temples in Surrey."Norimitsu Onishi & Ian Austen, Two Hooded Gunmen, a Silver Getaway Car and a Slain Sikh Leader , The New York Times (September 23, 2023). Nijjar was re-affirmed as president of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in 2022.
Nijjar was a leader of the Canadian branch of Sikhs for Justice. In 2012, he circulated petitions collecting signatures, calling on the United Nations to recognize anti-Sikh violence in India in 1984 as a genocide. In the months before his death, he was organizing an unofficial referendum among the Sikh diaspora, sponsored by Sikhs for Justice, in support of the Khalistan movement, which seeks an independent Sikh state. The Khalistan movement is banned in India, but has support within the Sikh diaspora.Sheikh Saaliq, What to know about the Sikh movement at the center of the tensions between India and Canada , Associated Press (September 20, 2023). After his death, the World Sikh Organization of Canada said that Nijjar "often led peaceful protests against the violation of human rights actively taking place in India and in support of Khalistan."
As a religious leader, Nijjar engaged in various community activities, holding special prayers for the Muslims slain in the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand and for the Canadian indigenous children buried in unmarked graves at Canadian residential schools. He also called for the release of G. N. Saibaba, a human rights activist imprisoned in India.
According to a voice recording obtained by The Globe and Mail, he advocated for the use of weapons against Indian opponents, stating, "We will have to take up arms. We will have to dance to the edges of swords." He also criticized Sikhs who support Khalistan through activism and political means, remarking, "Those who advocate peaceful methods, we need to leave them behind. What justice will we get this way?"
Nijjar had a dispute with Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Canadian Sikh who had been acquitted over involvement in the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182. Malik and a partner purchased a commercial printing press to use to print Sikh religious scripture, but later sued Nijjar in a civil lawsuit in British Columbia, alleging that Nijjar had failed to return the press that Malik had given him for safekeeping. After Malik was murdered in July 2022, several Indian news reports, quoting Indian intelligence officials, speculated that Nijjar was somehow linked to Malik's death. Nijjar denounced these claims, saying that he was friendly with Malik, that he sent his son to a school founded by Malik, and that he respected Malik's work within the Sikh community; Nijjar's lawyer said that Nijjar was "being vindictively targeted and accused of crimes solely based on dissenting political opinions."
Allegations of militant activities
The Indian government accused Nijjar of being the leader of pro-Khalistan militant group Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).Sakshi Dayal, Hardeep Singh Nijjar: Who was the Sikh leader murdered in Canada? , Reuters (September 19, 2023): "Nijjar later became chief of the militant group Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF)..., according to a 2020 Indian government statement." Nijjar was also associated with Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), and spearheaded the group's Khalistan Referendum 2020 campaign. At the Indian government's request, two Interpol red notices were issued against Nijjar, in 2014 and 2016. The first accused him of being a "mastermind/active member" of Khalistan Tiger Force and said that suspects arrested in connection with the 2007 Shingaar cinema hall bomb blast in Ludhiana had implicated him. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Canadian-American lawyer, activist, and associate of Nijjar's, said that Nijjar was acquitted of involvement in a conspiracy.
The Indian government and intelligence agencies alleged that Nijjar visited Pakistan in 2012–14, where he met with militant leader Jagtar Singh Tara of Babbar Khalsa International, was recruited and groomed by Pakistan's intelligence agency, received arms and explosives training, and under Tara's directive, was sent to Canada in 2013 to receive handheld GPS device training. In Pakistan, he was photographed brandishing an AK-47 and on a gurdwara rooftop with Tara. In 2015, the Indian government asked that Canadian authorities surveil Nijjar over suspicions of his involvement in a plot to transport ammunition into India using a paraglider. Nijjar said that this claim was "absolutely preposterous" and "more like a bad Bollywood movie plot."
In 2016, Surrey plumber Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal, was apprehended by the Punjab Police during a visit to Punjab, India, he later told the police that Nijjar had directed him to commit violent acts against "sect leaders," leading the Indian media to circulate articles claiming that Khalistani "terror training camps" were operating in the British Columbia wilderness. The 2016 Interpol red notice, issued at the request of Indian authorities, accused Nijjar of being the "mastermind and key conspirator of many terrorist acts in India"; India accused Nijjar of conspiring to kill "Hindu leaders" and claimed that Nijjar was running a Sikh terrorist training camp near Mission, British Columbia. Following these allegations, the RCMP questioned Nijjar, and he was subsequently placed on Canada's No Fly List and had his personal bank accounts frozen. For an undisclosed period of time, Nijjar was on the Interpol watch list, in 2016, his name was removed from the list with the assistance of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. In a letter sent in 2016 to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Nijjar called the Indian government's accusations "fabricated, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated" and part of a smear campaign seeking to discredit him. Anonymous sources close to Dhaliwal told the Globe that Nijjar led 5 Sikh men to partake in various clandestine activities, including weapons training, target practice, and GPS practice in Lower Mainland BC.
In 2018, the Indian government again accused Nijjar of "multiple targeted killings" in India, and in February 2018, Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Indian Punjab included Nijjar on a list of "most wanted persons" given to Canadian prime minister Trudeau. In a statement, Nijjar said: "I am being targeted and framed in false criminal cases by Indian authorities for my relentless campaign against the genocidal violence against the Sikhs and continuous support for Referendum 2020 to liberate Punjab and create separate Sikh country Khalistan." The Hindustan Times reported that the Surrey unit of the RCMP briefly detained Nijjar for questioning in April 2018, released him within 24 hours without laying any charges.