Canada and India expel each other’s diplomats in escalating dispute over an assassination
NEW DELHI — Canada and India each expelled six diplomats Monday (14) in tit-for-tat moves as part of an escalating dispute over the June 2023 assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada.
A senior Canadian government official said Canada was expelling six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner after police uncovered evidence of ongoing violent criminal activity linked to the Indian government. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Shortly afterwards, the Indian foreign ministry said it was expelling six Canadian diplomats. It had said earlier Monday that India was withdrawing its diplomats, after rejecting Canada’s notification that the Indian ambassador was a “person of interest” in the assassination.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year that there were credible allegations that the Indian government had links to the June 2023 assassination in Canada of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
India has rejected the accusation as absurd.
In response to the allegations, India told Canada last year to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Ever since the relations between the two countries have been frosty.
Earlier Monday, India’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was withdrawing its diplomats and also summoned the top Canadian diplomat in New Delhi and told him that “the baseless targeting” of the Indian high commissioner, or ambassador, and other diplomats and officials in Canada “was completely unacceptable”.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure their security,” it said.
The ministry said that India would withdraw its high commissioner and other diplomats and officials.
The Indian foreign ministry said Monday that “India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India.”
.It later said it had asked the six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday (19).
It also said it had summoned Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler to protest.
Canada’s government has not publicly confirmed that it has named any Indian official as a person of interest.
Wheeler on Monday reiterated Trudeau’s accusation, saying in a statement: “Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.
“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into those allegations.”
India has repeatedly said Canada has not shared any evidence to back its claim.
“This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains,” India’s foreign ministry said earlier on Monday.
In June, a committee of Canadian parliamentarians named India and China as the main foreign threats to its democratic institutions, based on input from intelligence agencies.
The US has also alleged that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot of another Sikh separatist leader in New York in 2023 and said it had indicted an Indian national working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.
India expressed concern after the US raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot, and launching an investigation.
The accusations of assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the US have tested their relationship with India as they look to forge deeper ties with the country to counter China’s rising global influence.
-Agencies
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