White House supports Canadian probe into ‘serious allegations’ around Nijjar’s killing, urge India to cooperate: John Kirby

U.S. President Biden was “ mindful of the serious allegations” made by Canadian PM Trudeau about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, White House’s strategic communications Chief, John Kirby said, as he urged India to cooperate in the investigation

U.S. President Joe Biden was “ mindful of the serious allegations” made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the killing of Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the White House’s strategic communications Chief, John Kirby has said, as he urged India to cooperate in the investigation. Mr Trudeau alleged on Monday that Indian government agents were involved in the June 18 killing of the separatist leader in Canada, an allegation that New Delhi has rejected.

“Certainly the President is mindful of these serious allegations ... and they are very serious ... and we support Canada’s efforts to investigate this,” Mr Kirby told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

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“We believe a fully transparent, comprehensive investigation is the right approach so that we can all know exactly what happened and of course we encourage India to cooperate with that.”

Asked if the U.S. , as a ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing partner of Canada, knew what the allegations were based on, Mr Kirby demurred, saying he wanted to respect the sanctity of the investigation. In terms of the fallout if the allegations were true, Mr Kirby said once the facts were available “you can start to look at recommendations or behaviours you might want to pursue”.

The U.S. is going to stay in touch with both its partners, India and Canada, about this issue, Mr Kirby told CBS News.

The U.S. was “ deeply concerned “ about the allegations, U.S. NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson had said on Tuesday, adding that it was critical that “ the perpetrators be brought to justice.”