In response to the investigation into the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, India will recall its ambassador to Canada

India announced Monday, October 14, that it was recalling its senior representative to Canada, accusing this country of investigating him and other diplomats considered by Ottawa as potential suspects in the investigation into the 2023 murder of a separatist leader. Sikh on Canadian soil.

“We do not have confidence in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensuring their security”said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. The Indian government therefore “decided to recall the high commissioner as well as other targeted diplomats and officials”he added.

The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who campaigned for the creation of an independent Sikh state in northern India called Khalistan, soured relations between the two countries, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that there was “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to this crime.

Excessive diplomatic reprisals

In a statement, India’s foreign ministry said it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the current investigation.

He described“absurd” allegations that India was involved in the murder, seeing it as a “strategy of defaming India for political purposes”. Indian diplomacy assured that the ambassador to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that the accusations against him were “ridiculous and deserved to be treated with contempt”.

Since Justin Trudeau’s accusations, the two countries have engaged in an escalation of diplomatic reprisals. In 2023, India temporarily restricted visas for Canadians and forced Ottawa to repatriate diplomats.

Summons of the Canadian charge d’affaires

“India now reserves the right to take further action in response to these latest efforts by the Canadian government to concoct allegations against Indian diplomats”warned the ministry. He said he had summoned Canada’s consular charge d’affaires, Stewart Wheeler.

“Canada has provided credible and irrefutable evidence of links between Indian government agents and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil”Mr. Wheeler commented to journalists after leaving the Indian ministry.

“Now is the time for India to deliver on its promises and address 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 again.

Nijjar, who immigrated to Canada in 1997 before being naturalized in 2015, was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. Four Indians have been arrested following the murder of Nijjar, who was killed in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.

Some 770,000 Sikhs live in Canada, constituting 2% of the population, with an active minority calling for the creation of an independent state of “Khalistan”.