Canada Expels Indian Diplomats Accusing India of Killing Nijjar
India and Canada have expelled diplomats amid escalating tensions over accusations of Indian involvement in the assassination of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
As you all are aware, India and Canada are not on the best terms currently. It all began in June 2023 when the Canadian Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a Sikh cultural centre in Surrey Canada.
ISH has released several videos on the escalated news. If you missed watching it, you can watch it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOnJIXpDIR8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8tmH7kTQEs
In the latest update on the India-Canada relationship front, Canada’s diplomatic communication informed the Ministry of India’s External Affairs on 13th October 2024 that the Indian diplomats to Canada were a “person of interest” in the assassination of Nijjar.
The Ministry of External Affairs of India denied the claim calling it “absurd” & “preposterous” and called it the Trudeau government’s politics to win vote banks in next year’s elections.
It also rejected further diplomatic communication and ordered the withdrawal of Indian diplomats deployed in Canada.
On 14th October 2024, Canada Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly conducted a press conference and announced that Canada is expelling 6 Indian diplomats, including the Indian high commissioner, Mr Sanjay Kumar Verma after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) claimed to have found concrete evidence & clear information which established direct links between criminal activities and Indian government agents.
However, an anonymous senior Canadian official said that Canada expelled the Indian diplomats first before India withdrew them.
Some reports also claim that the Canadian Foreign Ministry had summoned Mr Sanjay Kumar Verma & 5 other diplomats last week by giving him an unsigned diplomatic correspondence stating that the Canadian law enforcement authorities wanted to interrogate him & other Indian diplomats in Nijjar’s assassination case.
In her statement, Joly claimed that the Canadian Foreign Minister requested India to waive the diplomatic and consular immunities of these diplomats and to cooperate in the investigation but India did not agree.
Joly said, “Regrettably, as India did not agree and given the ongoing public safety concerns for Canadians, Canada served notices of expulsion to these individuals. Subsequent to those notices, India announced it would withdraw its officials.”
She continued to ask for the Indian government’s cooperation & support in the ongoing investigation of Nijjar's assassination.
Supporting Joly’s statement, RCMP’s Mike Duheme also said that police have evidence allegedly tying Indian government agents to other homicides and violent acts in Canada.
RCMP's assistant commissioner, Brigitte Gauvin further alleged the Lawrence Bishnoi gang being behind the criminal activities and claimed that the Indian government had been using Bishnoi’s associates in Canada through its Indian diplomats to target Khalistani terrorists.
Shortly afterwards, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India is also expelling 6 Canadian diplomats, including the acting Canadian high commissioner and the deputy Canadian high commissioner giving them 19th October 2024 E.O.D (end of the day) as the deadline to leave India.
He said, “India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India, and stated that Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau’s “hostility to India has long been in evidence.”
The ministry also noted that Mr Sanjay Kumar Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat. With a career expanding 36 years, during which he was the Indian ambassador to Japan and Sudan and served in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China as a diplomat.
Later that same evening, the Ministry of External Affairs of India summoned the top Canadian diplomat, Stewart Wheeler to New Delhi and told him that “the baseless targeting” of the Indian diplomats in Canada “was completely unacceptable.”
It added, “We have no faith in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure their security.”
Wheeler replied saying that India must investigate the allegations and that Canada “stands ready to cooperate with India.”
On 15th October 2024, PM Trudeau issued a public statement. He repeated the RCMP’s claim and further accused India of continuing to engage in activities that pose a significant threat to Canadian public safety including, “clandestine information-gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians and involvement in a dozen threatening and violating acts including murder,” and further added that it was “unacceptable.”
He claimed that Indian diplomats disagreed with the evidence and didn’t cooperate during last week's meeting with the Canadian Foreign Ministry. He added that the Indian government too, repeatedly refused cooperation in the matter forcing Canada to take the extraordinary step of expelling the Indian diplomats.
PM Trudeau declared that Canada cannot abide by India's actions and expects India to respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity just like how Canada respects that of India.
PM Trudeau also said he emphasised that both India & Canada have “work to do” to repair the strained relationship between the two countries to PM Modi during their short meeting at the 21st ASEAN-India and the 19th East Asia Summit in Laos last week.
On 16th October 2024, PM Trudeau sought support from one of its Five Eyes allies, Great Britain. He called UK PM Keir Starmer to discuss the issue describing it as a “targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the govt. of India”.
Britain has not issued any statement on the matter so far.
Keep watching ISH News for more updates on the topic.
