India today recalled its ambassador and five other diplomats to Canada over Ottawa’s interest in them in connection with last year’s murder of Sikh leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. According to Reuters sources, Canada decided to expel them practically at the same time, to which Delhi responded by expelling six Canadian diplomats from India, writes Reuters.
India said it was responding to “absurd allegations” by Canada linking some members of the Indian diplomatic corps to the June 2023 murder of a Sikh separatist leader. India’s ambassador to Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, called the actions of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government politically motivated in an attempt to drive political points.
“We have no confidence in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure the safety of diplomats. The Indian government has therefore decided to recall the ambassador and other diplomats and officials who have been targeted,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement. Five Indian diplomats and ambassadors were expelled by Ottawa this afternoon, according to Reuters.
Delhi also announced that it had summoned Canada’s chargé d’affaires today and informed him that baseless attacks on Indian diplomats and officials in Canada were completely unacceptable. In the afternoon, six Canadian diplomats were asked to leave the country by Sunday midnight.
Relations between Delhi and Ottawa have been at a standstill since September 2023, when Trudeau said Canada had credible evidence of the Indian government’s involvement in the assassination of a Sikh leader. Delhi denies the allegations, Canada subsequently recalled 41 of its 62 diplomats and suspended visa services for Canadians. In June of this year, a committee of Canadian parliamentarians, based on information from intelligence services, identified India and China as the main foreign threats to Canadian democratic institutions.
Last June, Nijjar, a supporter of a separate Sikh state in India, was shot dead in Vancouver, Canada. In 2020, the Indian government designated him as a terrorist because he supported the creation of the independent Sikh state of Khalistan in the region of the Indian state of Punjab. Protests demanding the creation of this independent state unit of India are perceived with great distaste.
Source: www.tyden.cz
