An indication outdoor the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple is noticed after the killing on its grounds in June 2023 of Sikh chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada September 18, 2023. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Ottawa, Canada — Canada on Monday accused India’s govt of involvement within the killing of a Canadian Sikh chief close to Vancouver remaining June, and expelled New Delhi’s intelligence leader in Ottawa in retaliation.
The diplomatic transfer despatched family members between Ottawa and New Delhi, already bitter, to a dramatic new low.
Top Minister Justin Trudeau informed an emergency consultation of the parliamentary opposition at mid-afternoon that his govt had “credible allegations” linking Indian brokers to the slaying of an exiled Sikh chief, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June in British Columbia.
“The involvement of any international govt within the homicide of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau stated.
He known as “within the most powerful imaginable phrases” at the Indian govt to cooperate in clearing up the topic.
International Minister Melanie Jolie stated the Trudeau govt had taken quick motion.
“Nowadays we now have expelled a senior Indian diplomat from Canada,” she stated, with out naming the professional.
Jolie stated the expelled Indian is the top of the Analysis and Research Wing (RAW), India’s international intelligence company, in Canada.
Nijjar, whom India had declared a sought after terrorist, was once gunned down on June 18 in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver this is house to a big Sikh group. Canada has the biggest inhabitants of Sikhs outdoor of Punjab, India.
Nijjar advocated for the introduction of an impartial Sikh state to be carved out of portions of northern India and possibly a part of Pakistan. India accused Nijjar of sporting out terrorist assaults in India, a price he denied.
Tensions between India and Canada had been simmering over the unsolved slaying, and Indian disappointment over how Ottawa has treated right-wing Sikh separatists.
New Delhi accuses Ottawa of turning a blind eye to the actions of Sikh nationalists who search a separate Sikh native land in northern India.
A former adviser to Trudeau, Jocelyn Coulon, asserted that Canada’s accusation would have “the impact of a bomb around the globe.”
India will sign up for “the gang of countries that assassinate political warring parties” in a foreign country, a lot as Saudi Arabia orchestrated the homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in 2018, stated Coulon, who’s now an impartial researcher.
New Delhi didn’t right away reply to Canada’s fees.
Tensions between the 2 international locations flared additional previous this month all over the G20 summit in New Delhi, which Trudeau attended.
Indian Top Minister Narendra Modi expressed “robust considerations about proceeding anti-India actions of extremist parts in Canada” all over a gathering with Trudeau, consistent with an Indian govt commentary.
India has regularly complained about actions of the Sikh diaspora in a foreign country, in particular in Canada, which New Delhi believes may revive a Sikh separatist motion.
The Indian state of Punjab, which is 58 p.c Sikh and 39 p.c Hindu, was once rocked by way of a violent separatist motion within the Nineteen Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties, through which hundreds died.
Canada additionally not too long ago suspended negotiations for a loose industry settlement with India.
Trudeau later informed media that Canada would at all times shield “freedom of expression, freedom of moral sense and freedom of non violent protest” whilst appearing towards hatred.
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