NEW DELHI — India expelled one among Canada’s prime diplomats Tuesday, ramping up a confrontation between the 2 nations over Canadian accusations that India might have been concerned within the killing of a Sikh separatist chief in suburban Vancouver.
India, which has dismissed the accusations as absurd, mentioned the expulsion got here amid “rising concern on the interference of Canadian diplomats in our inside issues and their involvement in anti-India actions,” in line with a press release from its Ministry of Exterior Affairs.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to attempt to calm the diplomatic conflict Tuesday, telling reporters that Canada is “not trying to provoke or escalate.”
“We’re merely laying out the information as we perceive them and we wish to work with the federal government of India to put the whole lot clear and to make sure there are correct processes,” he mentioned. “India and the federal government of India must take this matter with the utmost seriousness.”
On Monday, Trudeau mentioned there have been “credible allegations” of Indian involvement within the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh chief who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, exterior Vancouver. For years, India has mentioned Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, has hyperlinks to terrorism, an allegation Nijjar denied.
A U.S. official mentioned Trudeau was in touch with President Joe Biden’s administration about Canada’s findings earlier than elevating them publicly. The official, who was not approved to remark publicly and spoke on situation of anonymity, mentioned Trudeau’s willingness to talk out concerning the matter was taken by the White Home as a sign of the Canadian chief’s certainty about what had been discovered.
Canada has but to offer any proof of Indian involvement, but when true it could mark a significant shift for India, whose safety and intelligence branches have lengthy been important gamers in South Asia, and are suspected in quite a lot of killings in Pakistan. However arranging the killing of a Canadian citizen in Canada, dwelling to almost 2 million individuals of Indian descent, can be unprecedented.
India, although, has accused Canada for years of giving free rein to Sikh separatists, together with Nijjar.
The dueling expulsions have escalated tensions between Canada and India. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi throughout this month’s Group of 20 assembly in New Delhi, and some days later Canada canceled a commerce mission to India deliberate for the autumn.
Nijjar, a plumber, was additionally a pacesetter in what stays of a once-strong motion to create an unbiased Sikh homeland, generally known as Khalistan. A bloody decadelong Sikh insurgency shook north India within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, till it was crushed in a authorities crackdown wherein 1000’s of individuals had been killed, together with outstanding Sikh leaders.
Violence spilled throughout years and continents. In 1984, former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards after she ordered a military operation to flush out closely armed Sikh separatists barricaded inside Sikhism’s holiest shrine. Her killing led to riots that left greater than 2,000 Sikhs useless.
The subsequent yr, an Air India jetliner flying from Toronto to New Delhi was destroyed by a bomb over the Irish coast, killing 329 individuals. Officers blamed Sikh separatists.
The Khalistan motion has misplaced a lot of its political energy however nonetheless has supporters within the Indian state of Punjab, in addition to within the sizable abroad Sikh diaspora. Whereas the energetic insurgency ended years in the past, the Indian authorities has warned repeatedly that Sikh separatists had been attempting to make a comeback.
Nijjar was needed by Indian authorities, who had supplied a reward for info resulting in his arrest. On the time of his killing he was working with the group Sikhs For Justice, organizing an unofficial Sikh diaspora referendum on independence from India.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a lawyer and spokesperson for Sikhs For Justice, has mentioned Nijjar was warned by Canadian intelligence officers about being focused for assassination by “mercenaries.”
Nijjar had lately been assembly “a couple of times per week” with Canadian Safety Intelligence Service officers, together with a day or two earlier than the taking pictures, mentioned his son Balraj Singh Nijjar.
He mentioned his father had obtained lots of of threatening messages telling him to cease his advocacy for Sikh independence. The threats had been all the time handed to authorities.
“We weren’t nervous about security as a result of we weren’t doing something incorrect,” he mentioned. “We had been simply utilizing freedom of speech.”
He mentioned the household was relieved by Canada’s actions.
“From day 1 we sort of had this concept and data that if something would occur to him, the Indian authorities can be concerned,” he mentioned. “It was only a matter of time for when the reality would come out. It’s lastly coming to the general public eyes that the Indian authorities is concerned on this.”
On Monday, Trudeau advised Parliament that Canadian safety companies had been investigating “credible allegations of a possible hyperlink between brokers of the federal government of India” and Nijjar’s killing.
“Any involvement of a overseas authorities within the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he mentioned.
India’s overseas ministry dismissed the allegation as “absurd” and accused Canada of harboring “terrorists and extremists.”
“Such unsubstantiated allegations search to shift the main focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who’ve been offered shelter in Canada and proceed to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it mentioned in a press release Tuesday.
India has lengthy demanded that Canada take motion towards the Sikh independence motion, which is banned in India. Canada has a Sikh inhabitants of greater than 770,000, about 2% of its inhabitants.
In March, Modi’s authorities summoned the Canadian excessive commissioner in New Delhi, the highest diplomat within the nation, to complain about Sikh independence protests in Canada. In 2020, India’s overseas ministry additionally summoned the highest diplomat over Trudeau’s feedback about an agricultural protest motion related to the state of Punjab, the place many Sikhs reside.
Critics accuse Modi’s Hindu nationalist authorities of looking for to suppress dissent utilizing sedition legal guidelines and different authorized weapons. Some critics of his administration have been arrested, creating what Modi’s opponents say is a tradition of intimidation.
Trudeau mentioned Monday he introduced up Nijjar’s slaying with Modi final week on the G20 assembly in New Delhi, and advised him any Indian authorities involvement can be unacceptable and he requested for cooperation within the investigation.
Modi, for his half, expressed “sturdy considerations” over Canada’s dealing with of the Sikh independence motion at that assembly, India’s assertion mentioned.
Whereas in New Delhi, Trudeau skipped a dinner hosted by the Indian president, and native media studies mentioned he was snubbed by Modi when he bought a fast “pull apart” as a substitute of a bilateral assembly.
The assertion known as on Canada to work with India on what New Delhi mentioned is a risk to the Indian diaspora, and accused the Sikh motion of “selling secessionism and inciting violence” towards Indian diplomats.
Earlier this yr, Sikh protesters pulled down the Indian flag at India’s excessive fee in London and smashed the constructing’s window after India arrested a well-liked Sikh preacher. Protesters additionally smashed home windows on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco and skirmished with consulate employees.
The British authorities, in the meantime, mentioned Tuesday there have been no plans to reinvestigate the loss of life of a U.Ok-based Sikh activist within the wake of Canada’s declare India may need been behind the slaying of Nijjar.
Avtar Singh Khanda, who performed a outstanding position in protests for an unbiased Sikh homeland, died in June within the English metropolis of Birmingham after falling unwell. Supporters alleged be may need been poisoned, however Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, mentioned police discovered nothing suspicious.
The Trudeau authorities’s allegations are awkward for the U.Ok., which is a detailed ally of Canada within the “5 Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance that additionally consists of the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, and can also be looking for a free commerce cope with India.
“These are critical allegations. It’s proper that the Canadian authorities must be trying into them,” Blain mentioned, including it could be inappropriate to remark additional whereas the investigation is underway.
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Gillies reported from Toronto. Aamer Madhani in New York; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; and Jill Lawless in London, contributed to this report.