New Delhi: The chief of the Australian domestic intelligence agency has said that there’s “no reason to dispute” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claims of a possible link between Indian government agents and the killing of Sikh separatist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
In an interview with Australian news channel ABC News, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general Mike Burgess stopped just short of endorsing the Canadian PM’s allegations.
His remarks on the sidelines of a public summit of Five Eyes intelligence partners in California, came after he was asked for his assessment of Canada's allegations.
"No reason to dispute what the Canadian government has said in this matter," ABC News quoted Burgess as saying.
"There's no doubt any allegation of any country being accused of carrying out an execution of a citizen in that country, it's a serious allegation, and something that we don't do and something that nations should not do," he added.
Australia is a member of the Quad group of countries that includes India and is also part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the US, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.
While addressing the Canadian Parliament, Trudeau had said that government authorities were investigating “credible allegations of potential links” between Indian government agents and the killing of Nijjar, chief of the pro-Khalistan outfit Khalistan Tiger Force and a designated terrorist in India, in June.
Trudeau’s allegations triggered a major diplomatic row between Canada and India with India rejecting the accusations as "absurd" and expelling a senior Canadian diplomat in response.
Nijjar was shot dead by unidentified assailants outside a gurdwara in Canada’s British Columbia on 18 June, kicking up a row that involved the two countries expelling each other’s diplomats.
As the row escalated, US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen admitted there was “shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners”.