Ottawa has failed to offer convincing proof that India was responsible for the murder of terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar of the Khalistan Tiger Force, but Canadian intelligence continues to promote the idea that he was the upright and devout leader of the Guru Nanak Gurudwara in Surrey, Canada.
A dossier put together by Indian intelligence agencies claims that he became the head of the Sikh temple by threatening his own cousin and the temple’s former president Raghbir Singh Nijjar.
According to the dossier, Gurdeep Singh, alias Deepa Heranwala, a terrorist with the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), who was responsible for over 200 murders in Punjab between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, had a longtime friend in Nijjar. He was introduced to criminality by Gurnek Singh, also known as Neka, a different gang leader.
According to the dossier, Nijjar fled to Canada in 1996 using a false passport using the name “Ravi Sharma” and maintained a low profile as a truck driver and a plumber. According to the report, he made contact with KTF Chief Jagtar Singh Tara, who lives in Pakistan, and traveled there in April 2012 while posing as a member of the Baisakhi jatha. Tara radicalized him, and the Pakistani spy service Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) nurtured him, teaching him how to use weapons and explosives in 2012 and 2013. The dossier even asserts that Tara sent Harjot Singh Birring, who is located in the US, to Canada in 2013 to instruct Nijjar in the use of a handheld GPS device.
