US ambassador to Canada David Cohen has confirmed that "shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners" had informed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the possible involvement of Indian agents in the murder of a Canadian citizen in June, CTV News reports.
Intelligence-sharing network Five Eyes includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Trudeau said on Monday that Canada had credible intelligence linking Indian agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver, prompting an angry reaction from the Indian government, which denies the allegation.
"I will say this was a matter of shared intelligence information. There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this, and I think that's as far as I'm comfortable going," Cohen told CTV News in an interview to be aired on Sunday.
The Canadian government amassed intelligence from both human and electronic sources in a months-long investigation into the murder, CBC News reported separately on Thursday.
Cohen did not comment to CTV News on the type of intelligence that had informed the Canadian government.
The US made clear on Friday that it expected the Indian government to work with Canada on efforts to investigate the possible involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar's murder.
"We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in a press briefing.
"It would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to see accountability."
Meanwhile, India's federal anti-terror agency on Saturday said it had confiscated the properties of an alleged Khalistani militant whom it accuses of terror activities in India.
The seizure of a house and land owned by Gurpatwant Singh Pannu in India's northern state of Punjab "comes as a big boost to the country's crackdown on the terror and secessionist network being operated from various countries, including Canada," a statement issued by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said.
Following the diplomatic stand-off between the two countries, videos of Pannu threatening Indian Hindus to leave Canada surfaced on social media platform X.
The anti-terror agency had registered a case against the alleged militant in 2019 for spreading fear and terror in Punjab and other parts of the country.
NIA issued non-bailable warrants of arrest against Pannu in February 2021 and he was declared a "Proclaimed Offender (PO)" in November last year.
Australian Associated Press
