Gurcharan Singh’s days adopted an identical sample: cook dinner, clear, and plough. He labored for the Nijjar household on an remoted, peaceable potato and wheat farm in north-western Punjab, a state in northern India. But in spring final 12 months, the serenity ended.

Carloads of Indian authorities began turning up on the farm unexpectedly. They got here from everywhere in the nation and would drive down the gravel highway into the property.

Some had been uniformed police, others had been part of India’s infamous intelligence companies.

“We used to be a little worried, like why are they coming? What will they do? Like, what are they going to do to us?” Gurcharan stated.

The officers searched by one of many homes on the property — a pink, one-storey brick constructing with a rooftop terrace overlooking the farm.

“They looked through individual drawers, beds, rooms,” he stated. “There is a box at the back that was locked and there was no key, so they broke the lock to see what was inside.”

A number of weeks after the searches, Gurcharan Singh’s boss, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was killed on the opposite aspect of the world in Canada. 

Nijjar was a distinguished Sikh separatist pushing for the state of Punjab to separate from India and turn into its personal impartial nation referred to as Khalistan, a motion the Narendra Modi authorities sees as a menace.

His case is on the centre of a significant international dispute after the Canadian authorities took a rare measure — accusing Indian authorities brokers of getting a hand in his homicide.

The Modi authorities maintains the accusations are absurd, however revelations authorities searched Nijjar’s home and the village the place he grew up in Punjab simply earlier than his killing present India was carefully investigating the separatist earlier than his dying.

If the killing was designed to stifle the separatist motion, that seems to have failed, as protesters now routinely take to the streets to demand their very own nation and to name for solutions on India’s alleged assassination plots.

The ABC has gained entry to this motion, thought-about so harmful by the Indian authorities it is now on the centre of a world homicide conspiracy.

“They threaten India’s unity and territorial integrity and therefore they strike at the foundations of the Indian state,” stated former deputy nationwide safety advisor to Narendra Modi, Pankaj Saran.

Foreign Correspondent’s investigation into the killing took us to Punjab, the place we had been adopted carefully and questioned by Indian authorities. It’s a extremely delicate case for India as a result of it is drummed up accusations the Modi authorities is killing abroad dissidents, at a time when the nation is making an attempt to get nearer to western nations.

It’s been 9 months since Canada’s allegations. The nation’s authorities nonetheless have not laid expenses over the killing or supplied any proof proving the involvement of Indian brokers.

The Indian authorities and Khalistan supporters at the moment are urging Canada for solutions.

A life left behind

The home the place Hardeep Singh Nijjar grew up in his village, Bhar Singh Pura, is suspended in time.

Dusty light images of Hardeep and his household are displayed on the cabinets. In his marriage ceremony photograph, he smiles subsequent to his now-widowed spouse. There are posters of the founding father of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, displayed in lots of rooms of the home.

“Hardeep was a normal kid, he used to go to school, and he used to help his father with his milk business here. What more would a 15- to 16-year-old do?” stated his uncle Himmat Singh, who nonetheless lives on the household farm.

Himmat watched his nephew develop up in the course of the peak of the Sikh separatist struggle.

The thought of Sikh independence was first raised within the 1600s, to deal with persecution by the Muslim Mughal empire.

When the British left India within the Nineteen Forties, some Sikhs had hoped to realize their very own nation — however that did not occur.

The struggle culminated in 1984 when separatists took over the world-famous centre of Sikh spirituality, the Golden Temple, to demand independence for the globe’s estimated 26 million Sikhs.

Under the orders of then-prime minister Indira Gandhi, the Indian Army executed Operation Blue Star, brutally storming in with tanks and taking again management of the temple in a lethal shoot-out.

More than 600 separatists and troops had been killed, however human rights teams say 1000’s of harmless pilgrims had been additionally victims of the crossfire.

In retaliation, Mrs Gandhi’s two Sikh bodyguards assassinated her, sparking vigilante assaults on Sikhs throughout India that killed 1000’s.

It was round that point that Hardeep left his small Punjabi village and went to Canada, becoming a member of many different Sikhs in Western nations who had fled persecution in India.

“He left the village because he had curiosity, he wanted to go overseas and see the world there,” Himmat stated.

Hardeep bought a job as a plumber, he and his spouse had two sons. He joined his native Sikh temple and labored his approach as much as turn into president of the establishment.

India has banned a number of Khalistan teams from working domestically, together with Hardeep’s Sikhs for Justice, so the Sikh diaspora started main the struggle in western nations to name for an impartial nation of Khalistan.

To exhibit widespread assist for independence, they held unofficial referendums in international locations like Australia, Canada, the US and the UK.

Hardeep was organising the Canadian vote.

India had labelled Hardeep Singh Nijjar a terrorist, accusing him of a variety of crimes like assembly militant leaders in Pakistan, smuggling ammunitions throughout the closely militarised India-Pakistan border utilizing paragliders, and plotting killings in India.

“His material and details about him were shared with the Canadians,” Narendra Modi’s former deputy nationwide safety advisor, Pankaj Saran, advised the ABC, in a uncommon interview with somebody from that secretive division.

“We’ve had, I believe, almost 25 extradition requests that have been put across to the Canadians. We have basically told them this is all the material that there is and all that we are asking you is to return them back to India so that they can be tried as per law.”

Hardeep’s uncle is adamant his nephew wasn’t a terrorist. “He stayed in Canada for so long, never did we hear about him taking part in any such activities,” he stated.

Who killed Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

The Nijjar household farm in Punjab is bitingly chilly within the winter, with mist that hangs so thick within the air it is exhausting to see even a couple of metres forward.

This state in India’s north is the center of the Sikh neighborhood and often known as the nation’s wheat basket. Most of the state is farmland linked to small villages — Hardeep’s is made up of many giant homes principally owned by individuals like him who migrated abroad.

One day in June final 12 months, Himmat had gone to the native physician for a check-up. He was advised his nephew had been shot useless.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar had completed his work on the native temple, based on Canadian police, bought into his pick-up truck and was shot a number of occasions by two hooded gunmen.

The information shocked his Punjabi village. “They all came here to grieve, they kept coming here for months,” Himmat stated.

Two days earlier than he died, Canadian police had warned Hardeep his life was in peril.

Within the separatist motion that spreads from Punjab, to Canada, to Australia, the UK, and the US, there was additionally disbelief.

“We were stunned,” stated Kanwar Pal Singh, one of many leaders of Punjab-based Khalistan group Dal Khalsa.

“Although Nijjar was aware of the threat, Nijjar knew that India is after him … but still, when he was killed, we were shocked and stunned.”

Three months after the killing, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bought up in parliament and accused the Indian authorities of being concerned in Nijjar’s killing.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he stated in parliament in September.

“It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.”

Pankaj Saran, Narendra Modi’s former deputy nationwide safety advisor, stated Nijjar was on the federal government’s radar, however Trudeau’s announcement was “dramatic”.

“I think we were all surprised. In India when we watched and we heard, because it was dramatic,” he stated. “The Indian government, I think, responded the way anyone would have expected them to — basically they said, ‘look, we don’t know what they’re saying and, you know, this is not our policy’.”

Mr Saran stated India continues to be ready for proof that its brokers had been concerned in Nijjar’s killing.

“If you have evidence, if you have proof, share it with us so that we can investigate,” he stated. “But the fact that you are also at the same time throwing various accusations on India and India’s commitment to law and international law and everything else, that is superfluous.”

While the Indian authorities maintains these allegations are false, Mr Saran has stated defending India’s pursuits are paramount. “Theoretically speaking, if someone has to defend your country against threats, which you perceive to be of your core national interest, then all means are fair,” he advised the ABC.

“This is the practice that has been followed since time immemorial, by every nation on earth, this is nothing unique or specific to India.

“So, at a conceptual theoretical stage, after all, each nation has the duty to guard and defend itself.”

The thriller of what Canada is aware of

For months, Canada’s allegations against the Indian government seemed to be isolated. Then, at the end of last year, US authorities charged a man with plotting to kill a Sikh separatist in New York, saying he was acting on the orders of an Indian agent.

The US, which is pursuing closer diplomatic and economic ties with India as tensions with China increase, said the allegations would be taken “very severely”.

The plot is yet to be tested in court, but Sikh separatists in Punjab said it affirms their beliefs they’re being targeted by the Indian government.

The Khalistan movement has been stagnating for years, but these alleged assassination plots have revived the fight.

“People are being killed on overseas soil further judicially,” separatist leader Kanwar Pal Singh said.

“They energise us, they provide us sufficient causes to maintain our struggle going.”

Mr Singh and thousands of Khalistan supporters in Punjab and around the world are adamant the Indian government is responsible for Nijjar’s killing.

“Who killed Hardeep Singh Nijjar? My reply is India killed Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Mr Singh stated.

“India wished him again, India wished his extradition, when India did not get Hardeep Singh Nijjar legally, they killed him illegally.”

On India’s Republic Day, a celebration of independence from Britain, Kanwar Pal Singh and his group protested with black flags in a heavily organised march.

Many held signs with photos of Nijjar, others had Ajit Doval, Narendra Modi’s national security advisor and Mr Saran’s former boss, emblazoned on their placards.

Indian intelligence officers were closely watching the separatists’ every move, even as they travelled to the march.

When Mr Singh and his group went to the Golden Temple for an interview with the ABC, at least eight intelligence officers were watching them and our crew, they said.

“They had been simply scanning us — what we’re doing, what we’re speaking,” Mr Singh stated.

“We see them each day, each protest, each perform of Dal Khalsa, they cowl, they arrive, they take notes, they make movies, and so they ship it to the federal government.”

The Sikh separatists and the Indian government disagree on the future of a Khalistan state but they are united on one thing: they want Canada to put forward any evidence they have in Nijjar’s case.

“We [call on] the worldwide neighborhood… to Canada to place these individuals on trial,” Mr Singh stated.

“There have been sufficient talks by Trudeau … we must always see one thing occurring within the courtroom of legislation.”

A sensitive matter for India

The Narendra Modi government has projected itself as a protector of India’s Hindu majority, a narrative that’s helped secure two landslide election wins for the prime minister and expectations of a rare third victory in an election that begins next month.

The allegation that India is targeting Khalistan supporters is “excellent propaganda for each side,” said Ajai Sahni, who has been researching the movement for decades at the Institute for Conflict Management.

“As far as the present Indian authorities is worried, it serves their narrative of a muscular state, a state that may, in language that has been utilized by the management, go into their properties and kill them,” he stated.

“So this feeds the profile that the current regime seeks to undertaking amongst its supporters and within the forthcoming election.”

But the Indian government has gone to great lengths to restrict reporting on the Khalistan movement, which separatists say appears to show the regime’s concerns with the accusations it was responsible for Nijjar’s killing.

Last week, India ordered YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter, to block access to a Canadian documentary looking into Nijjar’s killing.

“Indian legislation obligates X to withhold entry to this content material in India; nonetheless, the content material stays out there elsewhere,” X said in an email to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“We disagree with this motion and preserve that freedom of expression ought to prolong to those posts. Following the Indian authorized course of, we’re in present communication with the Indian authorities.”

During the course of our investigation, our crew faced pressure from Indian authorities.

We were questioned by Indian criminal intelligence officials about the nature of our reporting and blocked from filming a public event in Punjab.

It’s not clear if India is orchestrating hits on overseas dissidents, as Canadian and US authorities have claimed, but it’s evident that everything to do with the Khalistan movement, including journalists reporting on it, is being closely monitored.

Kanwar Pal Singh is now used to being watched as he lives his day-to-day life.

“We are underneath the scanner of India,” he said.

As for whether he’s worried for his life?

“No, I’m not scared, it is all as much as God and you may ask Mr Modi.”

Watch Foreign Correspondent’s Sikhs, Spies and Murder now on ABC iview and YouTube.