New Delhi: India has thrown out a senior Canadian diplomat in a counterstroke following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s charge Monday that Indian agents were involved in the murder of a Sikh separatist in a Vancouver suburb in June.
As a consequence, Canada expelled India’s top intelligence officer in the country, without providing further details.
A Ministry of External Affairs press release said Tuesday that the High Commissioner of Canada to India was summoned and informed about the decision of the government to expel a senior Canadian diplomat based in India.
“The concerned diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days,” the press release read, adding, “The decision reflects the Government of India’s growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities.”
The already-strained India-Canada diplomatic relations hit a new low Monday when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament that Canadian security agencies were “actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and (Hardeep Singh) Nijjar’s death”.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on 18 June in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver with a large Sikh population. Nijjar supported a separate Khalistani state and was designated by India as a “terrorist” in July 2020.
Within hours, India released a strongly-worded statement, saying, “India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada is absurd and motivated”.
The foreign ministry also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had rejected Trudeau’s contention when he apparently brought it up on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit last week. “We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law,” the foreign ministry’s earlier statement read.