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20-09-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI: India said on Tuesday it had expelled a Canadian diplomat with five days’ notice to leave the country, just hours after Ottawa expelled the South Asian nation’s top intelligence agent and accused him of a role in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader.
The development was the latest in an escalating row between the two nations, with Canada saying on Monday it was “actively pursuing credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the murder in British Columbia in June.
The Canadian high commissioner, or ambassador, in New Delhi had been summoned and told of the expulsion decision, India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“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 ministry added.
“The concerned diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days.” Earlier on Tuesday, India dismissed the Canadian accusation as “absurd and motivated” and urged it instead to take legal action against anti-Indian elements operating from its soil.
Earlier, Canada on Monday accused India’s government of involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh leader near Vancouver last June, and expelled New Delhi’s intelligence chief in Ottawa in retaliation.
The diplomatic move sent relations between Ottawa and New Delhi, already sour, to a dramatic new low.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an emergency session of the parliamentary opposition at mid-afternoon that his government had “credible allegations” linking Indian agents to the slaying of an exiled Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June in British Columbia.
“The involvement of any foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said. He called “in the strongest possible terms” on the Indian government to cooperate in clearing up the matter.
Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie said the Trudeau government had taken immediate action. “Today we have expelled a senior Indian diplomat from Canada,” she said, without naming the official. Jolie said the expelled Indian is the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, in Canada.
Nijjar, whom India had declared a wanted terrorist, was gunned down on June 18 in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver that is home to a major Sikh community. Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside of Punjab, India.
