By Krishn Kaushik, Sakshi Dayal and Promit Mukherjee
NEW DELHI/OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada expelled six top Indian diplomats and consular officials in relation to an investigation into the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia, its foreign ministry said on Monday.
Earlier in the day, India said it had ordered the expulsion of six high-ranking Canadian diplomats and withdrawn its envoy from Canada.
The expulsions represent a major deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two Commonwealth countries, which have been frayed since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had evidence linking Indian agents to the assassination of the Sikh separatist leader on his territory.
Trudeau has linked Indian government agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June.
India has long denied Trudeau’s accusation. On Monday, it dismissed Canada’s move on the inquiry and accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in an earlier news conference that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada are leveraging their official positions to engage in clandestine activities.
“The decision to expel these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
India said it had asked six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday. The ministry also said it had summoned Acting High Commissioner in India Stewart Wheeler, currently Canada’s top diplomat in the South Asian country.
India said it was expelling the diplomats because it was not confident their safety could be guaranteed.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
CRIMINAL ACTIVITY
Police have a “significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India in consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians and individuals living in Canada,” the RCMP said in a statement.
The law enforcement agency said the government of India is linked to homicides and extortion and used organised crime to target the South Asian community in Canada and interfere in democratic processes.
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.
Canada withdrew more than 40 diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence.
“We have gone from a rift to a major rupture in the relationship with India,” Fen Osler Hampson, professor of international relations at Ottawa’s Carleton University said in a telephone interview. “It is hard to see at this juncture that a return to normalcy will happen any time in the foreseeable future.”
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 U.S. has also alleged that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot against another Sikh separatist leader in New York last year, and said it had indicted an Indian national working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.
India expressed concern after the U.S. raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot, and has launched an investigation.
The accusations of assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the U.S. have tested their relationship with India as they look to forge deeper ties with the country to counter China’s rising global influence.
(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik, Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi and Promit Mukherjee and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Sudipto Ganguly, Ed Osmond, Andrew Heavens and Jonathan Oatis)
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