NEW DELHI (AP) — India expelled one of Canada’s top diplomats on Tuesday, intensifying a confrontation between the two countries over Canadian allegations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in a Vancouver suburb.
India, which has rejected the allegations as absurd, said the expulsion came amid “growing concerns about Canadian diplomats’ interference in our internal affairs and their involvement in anti-India activities,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to try to calm the diplomatic conflict on Tuesday, telling reporters that Canada is “not trying to provoke or escalate.”
“We are simply presenting the facts as we understand them and we want to work with the Indian government to clarify everything and ensure that there are due processes,” he said. “India and the Indian government must address this matter with utmost seriousness.”
On Monday, Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh leader who was killed by masked gunmen in Surrey outside Vancouver in June. For years, India has alleged that Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, had ties to terrorism, a claim Nijjar has denied.
A U.S. official said Trudeau contacted President Joe Biden’s government about Canada’s findings before raising them publicly. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trudeau’s willingness to comment on the matter was taken by the White House as a sign that the Canadian leader is moving beyond the Results are certain.
Canada has not yet provided evidence of Indian involvement, but if it were, it would mark a major shift for India, whose security and intelligence agencies have long been key players in South Asia and are suspected in a series of killings in Pakistan. But the murder of a Canadian citizen in Canada, home to nearly two million people of Indian descent, would be unprecedented.
However, India has for years accused Canada of allowing Sikh separatists, including Nijjar, free rein.
The dueling expulsions have heightened tensions between Canada and India. During this month’s Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi, Trudeau had frosty encounters with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a few days later Canada canceled a trade mission to India planned for the fall.
Nijjar, a plumber, was also a leader of the remnants of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan. In the 1970s and 1980s, a bloody, decades-long Sikh insurgency rocked northern India until it was crushed by a government crackdown that killed thousands of people, including prominent Sikh leaders.
The violence spanned years and continents. In 1984, former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards after she ordered an army operation to oust heavily armed Sikh separatists who had barricaded themselves in Sikhism’s holiest shrine. Her murder led to riots in which more than 2,000 Sikhs died.
The next year, an Air India passenger plane flying from Toronto to New Delhi was destroyed by a bomb over the Irish coast, killing 329 people. Officials blamed Sikh separatists.
The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power but still has followers in the Indian state of Punjab as well as in the large Sikh diaspora abroad. Although the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists would attempt a comeback.
Nijjar was wanted by Indian authorities, who had offered a reward for information leading to his arrest. At the time of his assassination, he was working with the group Sikhs For Justice, organizing an unofficial referendum by the Sikh diaspora on independence from India.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a lawyer and spokesman for Sikhs For Justice, said Nijjar was warned by Canadian intelligence officials that he would be assassinated by “mercenaries.”
Nijjar had recently met with Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers “once or twice a week,” including a day or two before the shooting, said his son, Balraj Singh Nijjar.
He said his father had received hundreds of threatening messages asking him to stop his commitment to Sikh independence. The threats were always passed on to the authorities.
“We weren’t worried about safety because we didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “We were just using freedom of expression.”
He said the family is relieved by Canada’s actions.
“From day one we had the idea and the knowledge that if anything happened to him, the Indian government would be involved,” he said. “It was only a matter of time before the truth would come to light. It is finally becoming clear to the public that the Indian government is involved.”
On Monday, Trudeau told Parliament that Canadian security agencies were investigating “credible allegations of a possible link between Indian government agents” and Nijjar’s killing.
“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said.
India’s foreign ministry dismissed the claim as “absurd” and accused Canada of harboring “terrorists and extremists.”
“Such baseless allegations are aimed at diverting focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists who have been given sanctuary in Canada and who continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
India has long demanded that Canada take action against the Sikh independence movement, which is banned in India. Canada has a Sikh population of more than 770,000, about 2% of the population.
In March, Modi’s government summoned the Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi, the country’s top diplomat, to complain about Sikh independence protests in Canada. In 2020, India’s Foreign Ministry also summoned the top diplomat over Trudeau’s comments about an agricultural protest movement related to the state of Punjab, which has a large Sikh population.
Critics accuse Modi’s Hindu nationalist government of trying to suppress dissent using sedition laws and other legal weapons. Some critics of his government have been arrested, creating a culture of intimidation, Modi’s opponents say.
Trudeau said on Monday that he pointed out Nijjar’s killing to Modi at the G20 meeting in New Delhi last week, told him that any involvement by the Indian government was unacceptable and asked for cooperation in the investigation.
Modi, for his part, expressed “strong concerns” about Canada’s handling of the Sikh independence movement at the meeting, India’s statement said.
While in New Delhi, Trudeau skipped a dinner hosted by the Indian president and local media reports said he was snubbed by Modi when he was given a quick “set aside” instead of a bilateral meeting.
The statement called on Canada to cooperate with India, which New Delhi said poses a threat to the Indian diaspora, and accused the Sikh movement of “promoting secessionism and inciting violence” against Indian diplomats.
Earlier this year, Sikh protesters tore down the Indian flag outside the Indian High Commission in London and smashed the building’s window after India arrested a popular Sikh preacher. Protesters also broke windows at the Indian consulate in San Francisco and clashed with consulate staff.
Meanwhile, the British government said on Tuesday there were no plans to re-investigate the death of a UK-based Sikh activist after Canada claimed India could be behind Nijjar’s killing.
Avtar Singh Khanda, who played a prominent role in protests for an independent Sikh homeland, died in June in the English city of Birmingham after an illness. Alleged supporters may have been poisoned, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman Max Blain said police had found nothing suspicious.
The Trudeau government’s allegations are uncomfortable for the United Kingdom, which is a close ally of Canada in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and which is also seeking a free trade agreement with India.
“These are serious allegations. “It is right that Canadian authorities are investigating,” Blain said, adding that it would be inappropriate to make any further comment while the investigation is ongoing.
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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.