UK says India needs to co-operate with Canada investigation into murder of top Sikh activist
The UK has said India needs to co-operate with Canada’s investigation into the murder of a Sikh leader in British Columbia – after the two countries expelled each other’s diplomats over the issue.
Tensions between India and Canada, nominally friends, have been strained since Canadian citizen and prominent Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down in his car by masked men as he left a Sikh temple in Surrey, BC, in June 2023.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September last year there were “credible allegations” the Indian government was linked to the assassination.
India rejected the accusation as “absurd” and told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats from the country.
Canada is home to about 770,000 Sikhs, the largest Sikh diaspora outside Punjab. Delhi has criticised Ottawa over the years for failing to oppose the pro-Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh state in India.
On Monday, tensions ramped up further as Canada expelled six senior Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, after police uncovered evidence of ongoing violent criminal activity linked to India’s government, according to a senior Canadian government official.
India then ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats, and said it was withdrawing Mr Verma. India’s ministry of external affairs said it had “no faith in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure their security”.
Mourners at the funeral of Mr Nijjar in June 2023. Pic: AP
The tensions place the UK somewhat in the middle, with India and Canada both part of the Commonwealth, the UK and Canada in the G7 and NATO and the UK and India sharing a defence partnership and a possible free trade deal.
On Monday, Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Trudeau spoke to each other over the phone where they discussed “recent developments regarding allegations under investigation in Canada”, Downing Street said.
The Foreign Office has now said: “We are in contact with our Canadian partners about the serious developments outlined in the independent investigations in Canada.
“The UK has full confidence in Canada’s judicial system. Respect for sovereignty and the rule of law is essential.
“The government of India’s co-operation with Canada’s legal process is the right next step.”
Read more:
Sikh activist fears for his life every day in the UK
Canada and India expel each other’s diplomats over murder accusations
Suspicions Indian agents have killed Sikh activists are not isolated to Mr Nijjar’s case.
Last November, the FBI said it had thwarted the attempted assassination in the US by an Indian agent of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh activist leader.
The authorities said they had indicted an Indian national working on behalf of an unnamed Indian government official.
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Sikh activist fears for life in UK
British Sikh activist Kulwant Singh Mothada told Sky News in February he fears every day he will be assassinated by the Indian state after a “hit list” drawn up by India’s counter-terror department featuring his face was broadcast on Indian TV last year.
Mr Nijjar and Mr Pannun were also on the list.
Mr Mothada said he thinks the UK – unlike Canada and the US – is ignoring the issue to appease India.
“If I am assassinated then it’s the British government’s total responsibility,” he said.
In January, a cross-party group of parliamentarians requested an urgent meeting with then security minister Tom Tugendhat following reports of “threat to life warnings” being issued to British Sikhs.
A spokesperson for the UK government said that it continually assesses potential threats, and takes “the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK very seriously”.
Other leading Sikh activists in the US and Canada have also said they have been warned about threats to their lives.
India, meanwhile, has asked Britain to monitor UK-based Sikh separatists, accusing them of abusing the asylum system while being involved in “terrorist activities” in the South Asia country.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Related: Bitcoin at 16: From experiment to trillion-dollar asset
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’
The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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