At a press conference on Friday, police said the case is still under investigation. One of the leads the investigators are working on is possible links to the Indian government.
The murder of Nijjar happened in a suburb of Vancouver last June. The Sikh leader was known for his support for an independent state for Sikhs in India, and Indian authorities accused him of terrorism.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last fall that Canadian authorities were investigating whether Indian intelligence was involved in the murder. India has rejected the allegations, calling them absurd.
The Canadian broadcaster CBC reports that the three arrested were allegedly hired as hitmen. They are accused of having acted, among other things, as shooter and driver in connection with the murder.
According to the CBC, possible links to three other murders, including that of an eleven-year-old boy in Edmonton in the province of Alberta, are being investigated.
The arrest of the three men also took place in Edmonton.
Canadian authorities’ suspicions of India last year led to a crisis in relations between the countries. At the same time, the American newspaper Washington Post has written that Indian intelligence planned an assassination of a Sikh activist in the United States as well. Indian authorities have denied this charge as well.
