A SIKH group in Canada has condemned India following a new report into the 2023 killing of a leading activist.

The World Sikh Organisation of Canada (WSO) said on Monday that it was “deeply disturbed” by a report in the Globe and Mail newspaper accusing Indian consular staff of supplying “information to assist in the assassination” of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The newspaper cited two unnamed law enforcement and national security sources as saying that a visa officer at the Indian consulate in Vancouver was thought to be connected to India’s external intelligence agency “to gather information” about Mr Nijjar.

The information was allegedly passed, via New Delhi, to a criminal gang known as the Bishnoi.

A Canada-based Bishnoi member is alleged to have helped arrange the shooting of Mr Nijjar outside a Sikh gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, in June 2023.

In a statement, the WSO said: “This is a grave attack on Canadian sovereignty and the safety of Sikh Canadians.”

The Sikh organisation demanded that an investigation by Prime Minister Mark Carney into the killing “extends beyond the gunmen to those who directed” the killing, “including officials in the government of India.”

Indian External Affairs Ministry secretary Periasamy Kumaran dismissed the allegations as “baseless, politically motivated and unsupported by credible evidence.”