ON Tuesday morning, the Canadian High Commissioner was summoned by the Indian Foreign Ministry and was informed about their decision to expel a senior Canadian diplomat based in India.
According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Canadian diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days, and this decision reflected its growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in their internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities.
The Indian government’s move comes after the Canadian government expelled Pavan Kumar Rai, the head of the Research and analysis Wing, India’s External Intelligence Agency.
This escalated the tensions between both countries, but the person at the heart of the diplomatic dispute is Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was murdered last June.
Nijjar was a leader of the Khalistan Separatist Movement and a Canadian citizen.
He is the chief of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), a banned terrorist outfit said to be involved in several terror activities in India.
Nijjar had moved to Canada in the late 1990s, and in July 2020, India declared him a terrorist following his support for a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistan State.
Indian security agencies said he was actively involved in recruiting and training people for KTF, and was a part of the separatist outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which held a Khalistan referendum on September 10.
In 2022, India’s counterterrorism body, the National Investigation Agency, offered a reward of 1 million rupees for information that will lead to Nijjar’s apprehension or arrest.
This made Nijjar one of the most-wanted terrorists in the said country.
And on June 18 of this year, two unidentified gunmen shot Nijjar dead outside a Gurdwara in surrey, British Columbia.
It was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who delivered an emergency address to lawmakers in parliament on Monday, to inform that the security agencies have been pursuing what he said were credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of Nijjar on Canada.
Trudeau said he had raised the issue of the murder directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, and urged his government to cooperate with Canada to resolve the matter.
Modi, meanwhile, conveyed strong concern to Trudeau over the recent protests in Canada by Sikhs.
Following Trudeau’s announcement, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced the decision to expel the Indian official.
Meanwhile, India strongly rejected Canada’s claims, calling it absurd.
“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The inaction of the Canadian government on this matter has been a long-standing and continuing concern,” The Indian Ministry of External Affairs, said.
It added that the space given in Canada to acts of violence, including murder, human trafficking, and organized crime, is not new and that India rejects any attempts to connect with such activities.
Canada has the largest Sikh population outside the Punjab state of India.
According to the 2021 consensus, about 770,000 Canadians reported Sikhism as their religion.
Meanwhile, Khalistan is a separatist movement which began in the early 1980s.
It seeks an independent and theocratic Sikh state in Punjab and other Northern parts of India.
