Trudeau's India allegation based on 'shared intelligence from Five Eyes': US ambassador

US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen has said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegation against India was based on "shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners," the media reported.

"There was shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners that helped lead Canada to making the statements that the Prime Minister Trudeau made," Cohen said in an exclusive interview to CTV.

The Canadian government has collected "human and signal intelligence" involving Indian officials, including Indian diplomats present in Canada linking them to killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the media reported.


"Based on a month-long investigation into Nijjar's death, the Canadian government had amassed both human and signals intelligence which includes communications involving Indian officials themselves, including Indian diplomats present in Canada," public broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported quoting government sources.

Some of the intelligence was provided by an unnamed ally in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which consists of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the CBC reported.

As a result of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations that Indian intelligence and the government were involved in the killing of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in June in British Columbia, relations between India and Canada have deteriorated diplomatically. India declared Nijjar to be a terrorist in 2020.

India had dismissed the Canadian government's charges, calling them "absurd and motivated".

Senior diplomats were expelled from both nations on a tit-for-tat basis, and travel warnings were also issued.

On June 18, Nijjar was fatally murdered outside a Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

( With inputs from IANS)