Canada/New Delhi:
India has told Canada it will have to bring back 41 diplomats by October 10, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Relations between India and Canada have been severely strained over Canadian suspicions that Indian government agents had a role in the June killing of Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada, which India labeled a “terrorist”. Was. India has rejected the allegation as “absurd”.
The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the Indian demand, said India had threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of diplomats who stayed after October 10 if they were asked to leave.
According to the newspaper, Canada has 62 diplomats in India and India had said the total number should be reduced by 41. The Indian and Canadian foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there had previously been an “atmosphere of violence” and “an atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian diplomats in Canada, where the presence of Sikh separatist groups has disappointed New Delhi.
Canada-India dispute
After accusing India of involvement in the murder of a Canadian citizen, Ottawa took the significant step of expelling India’s top intelligence agent in connection with the case. Canada is actively pursuing credible allegations linking Indian government agents to the murder of Nijjar.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the Canadian House of Commons in an emergency statement, calling the involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen an unacceptable violation of Canadian sovereignty. He also called on India to take the investigation seriously.
Reading Canada’s Trudeau wants India to cooperate in murder investigation, refuses to release evidence
In response, India expelled a Canadian diplomat with five days’ notice to leave the country and rejected Canada’s allegation as “absurd and motivated”. India urged Canada to take legal action against “anti-India elements” operating from its soil.
Who was Nijjar?
According to the Khalistan Extremism Monitor of the New Delhi-based independent Conflict Management Institute, Nijjar was born in 1977 in Jalandhar district in India’s northern state of Punjab and moved to Canada in 1997, where he worked as a plumber.
According to India’s anti-terrorism National Investigation Agency, he was initially associated with the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Sikh separatist group. New Delhi has listed BKI as a “terrorist organisation” and said it is funded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, a charge Islamabad denies.
According to a 2020 Indian government statement, Nijjar later became the chief of the terrorist group Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and was “actively involved in operations, networking, training and financing” of its members.
New Delhi officially classified him as a “terrorist” in the same statement, and said he was involved in “promoting seditious and subversive charges” and “attempting to create disharmony between different communities” in the country. .
For supporters demanding the so-called independent Sikh state of Khalistan, Nijjar was a prominent leader and a strong voice for the cause.
He was elected head of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship in Surrey, the Vancouver suburb where he lived. He held that position at the time of his death.
