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Canada’s prime minister has stated there are “credible allegations” that India’s authorities was concerned within the deadly capturing in June of a distinguished Sikh chief in British Columbia.
Justin Trudeau’s accusations triggered a hostile response from New Delhi and a spherical of diplomatic expulsions, deepening a rift between the 2 G20 international locations.
Citing intelligence from nationwide safety providers, Trudeau on Monday instructed members of parliament that Canadian authorities have been investigating whether or not “brokers” of New Delhi have been behind the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver with a big Sikh neighborhood.
“Canadian safety companies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a possible hyperlink between brokers of the federal government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen,” Trudeau stated. “Any involvement of a overseas authorities within the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
Trudeau instructed parliament he raised the allegations with India’s prime minister Narendra Modi throughout a gathering in New Delhi final week in the course of the G20 summit.
A high Indian diplomat was expelled from Canada on Monday, stated Mélanie Joly, the nation’s overseas minister. “We are going to defend Canadians always,” Joly instructed reporters. “We count on India’s full collaboration to unravel this.”
India’s authorities on Tuesday dismissed Trudeau’s assertion and Joly’s remarks, as “absurd and motivated”.
“Related allegations have been made by the Canadian Prime Minister to our Prime Minister, and have been utterly rejected,” India’s exterior affairs ministry stated in an announcement. “We’re a democratic polity with a robust dedication to rule of regulation.”
The Indian authorities additionally stated it had requested a senior Canadian diplomat to go away the nation. “The choice displays [the] authorities of India’s rising concern on the interference of Canadian diplomats in our inner issues and their involvement in anti-India actions,” New Delhi stated.
Ties between India and Canada have lengthy been strained, as have private relations between their two prime ministers. New Delhi in 2020 accused Ottawa of interference after Trudeau spoke up in favour of protesting farmers who pressured Modi to desert a deliberate overhaul of agriculture regulation. The 2 international locations paused talks on a deliberate free commerce settlement final week.
Canada is residence to just about 800,000 Sikhs, a lot of whom dwell in Surrey and Brampton, a suburb of Toronto. Some Sikh Canadians assist the Khalistan independence movement, which seeks to create a sovereign state in India’s northern Punjab state.
India’s authorities condemns the motion and has lengthy accused Canada of harbouring Sikh separatists, whom it described on Tuesday as “Khalistani terrorists and extremists” who “proceed to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
“That Canadian political figures have overtly expressed sympathy for such components stays a matter of deep concern,” New Delhi stated.
India’s authorities had accused Nijjar, a Sikh nationalist, of terrorism and posted bounties for his arrest. In 2016, Nijjar wrote a letter to Trudeau that known as New Delhi’s allegations baseless and stated his activism was “peaceable, democratic and guarded below the Canadian Constitution of Rights and Freedoms”.
The World Sikh Group of Canada known as Nijjar’s killing on the grounds of the gurdwara — a Sikh home of worship, the place he was president — an “assassination” and urged Ottawa to research India’s function. British Columbia police stated final month that it had recognized three suspects, although they weren’t recognized. No arrests have been made.
Jagmeet Singh, the chief of Canada’s New Democratic celebration and a Sikh, stated on X, previously Twitter, that he would depart “no stone unturned within the pursuit of justice, together with holding Narendra Modi accountable”.
Professional-Khalistan protests in Canada and elsewhere this 12 months have infuriated Modi’s Hindu nationalist authorities, with supporters of the motion attacking New Delhi’s diplomatic missions in San Francisco and London.
In July, India summoned Canada’s excessive commissioner in New Delhi after protesters organised a “Khalistan freedom rally” in Toronto and made threats towards Indian diplomats whom they accused of involvement in Nijjar’s demise.
