The headquarters of the Indian representation in Canada is located in Ottawa.
AFP
India and Canada each expelled their ambassador and five other senior diplomats on Monday after New Delhi said its envoy had been named among “persons of interest” in an investigation into the assassination of ‘a Sikh separatist leader.
India said it was recalling its six diplomats from Canada, but a government source in Ottawa told AFP they had in fact been expelled.
The death in 2023 of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who campaigned for the creation of an independent Sikh state in northern India, Khalistan, soured relations between the two countries. Especially since the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, declared that there were “credible allegations” linking the Indian secret services to this crime.
“Absurd” claims
The expulsion of the diplomats – the most senior envoys of both sides – constitutes a major escalation in this crisis. “We do not have confidence in the commitment of the current Canadian government to ensure their security,” explained the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to justify the “withdrawal” of its personnel.
Shortly before, this Ministry had said it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the context of the ongoing investigation.
He had described allegations that India was involved in the murder as “absurd”, seeing it as a “strategy of defaming India for political purposes”.
Intimidation, harassment, extortion…
At the same time, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced on Monday that they had “evidence” of the involvement of Indian government agents in cases of “intimidation, harassment, extortion and coercion” on Canadian territory.
“Extraordinary circumstances compel us to disclose what we have discovered in multiple ongoing investigations into the involvement of agents of the Government of India in serious criminal activity in Canada,” said Commissioner Mike Duheme.
The RCMP links government agents to “homicides and acts of violence,” “clandestine activities such as intelligence gathering,” and “interference in democratic processes.”
The federal police emphasize that they tried to approach the Indian authorities with this evidence, without success. However, she did not directly link these accusations with the murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar
All restricted
Since Justin Trudeau’s accusations, New Delhi and Ottawa have engaged in one-upmanship in diplomatic reprisals. Last year, India temporarily restricted visas for Canadians and forced Canada to repatriate some of its diplomats.
“India now reserves the right to take further measures,” its Foreign Ministry warned on Monday. He said he had summoned Canada’s charge d’affaires, Stewart Wheeler.
“Canada has provided credible and irrefutable evidence of links between agents of the Indian government and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” Stewart Wheeler commented to journalists after leaving the Indian ministry.
“Now is the time for India to deliver on its promises and look into all these allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and their peoples to get to the bottom of this. Canada is ready to cooperate with India,” he said.
Killed in a parking lot
Killed in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who had immigrated to Canada in 1997 before being naturalized in 2015, was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
Some 770,000 Sikhs live in Canada, constituting 2% of the population, with an active minority calling for the creation of the independent state of Khalistan.
(afp)
