On the India-Canada spat, the U.S. is between a rock and a hard place

As perverse as it may sound, state-sponsored assassinations overseas are nothing new in the dirty world of international relations.

Israel has conducted targeted killings against terrorists in multiple countries; in 2010, a team of Mossad agents tracked a senior Hamas commander to his hotel room in Dubai and killed him, possibly by suffocation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a long history of poisoning perceived opponents and traitors. And then there was the case of Saudi intelligence agents luring Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was killed and dismembered.

Now India has joined the club. According to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s intelligence services have information suggesting the Indian government was involved in the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a high-profile Sikh leader in Canada who was shot to death by two masked gunmen in the Vancouver area in June.

As one might expect, the news has plunged India-Canada relations to new lows. The Canadian government expelled a top Indian diplomat from the country. India returned the favor by sending a Canadian diplomat packing and stopping the processing of visas for Canadians. New Delhi strongly denies the allegations.

Read at The Chicago Tribune

Author

Daniel
DePetris

Fellow

Defense Priorities