New Delhi: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US remains vigilant regarding instances of ‘transnational repression’ while indirectly referring to the claims made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the killing of Khalistani separatist-terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. To this, former Pentagon staffer and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Michael Rubin has shot back, saying he is not impressed with Blinken’s statement. He also criticised the Canadian government for not backing their claims with credible evidence and said Trudeau is shooting from the hip.
He also said Nijjar has ‘blood on his hands’ and is not a mere plumber as Canada is claiming him to be. “Let’s not fool ourselves, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was not simply a plumber any more than Osama Bin Laden was a construction engineer. He had blood on his hands through multiple attacks,” Rubin said.
“Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has made a huge mistake. He has made allegations in a manner which he has not been able to back. There are two possibilities here, either he was shooting from the hip and he does not have the evidence to support the accusations he made against the Indian government,” Rubin further added, urging Trudeau to answer why Canada was sheltering a terrorist.
“Secretary Blinken may, after the facts, say that the United States will always stand against transnational oppression. We’re actually being hypocritical if Secretary Blinken makes that statement,” Rubin said, referring to the killings of Iranian Quds chief Qasem Soleimani and former al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
Blinken urged India to cooperate in the ongoing investigations on Friday but stopped short of commenting directly on the subject.
“We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Canadian PM Trudeau has raised. We have been consulting very closely with our Canadian colleagues, and coordinating with them on this issue. From our perspective, it is critical that the Canadian investigation proceed,” Blinken said.
“We would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well,” he said.
“We are extremely vigilant about any instances of alleged transnational repression, something we take very seriously and it’s important for the international system that any country that might consider engaging in such acts not do so,” the US secretary of state further added.
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