India on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced the recall of its high commissioner from there after rejecting Canada's allegations linking its diplomat to the investigation into the killing of Sikh extremist Nijjar.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been spewing venom against India, and his government officials have so far not been able to provide any evidence to support the allegations of involvement of an Indian officer in the murder of Khalistani Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada has yet to provide any support for claims made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and law enforcement officials about alleged links between Indian officials and the killing of pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other criminal activities, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. No evidence has been given.
Trudeau has been alleging the involvement of Indian diplomats and officials in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar for more than a year. Since then relations between the two countries have soured. On Monday, the gap between the two countries widened further when Canada alleged that Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma was also involved in the conspiracy to kill Nijjar. India expressed strong objection to this and called it baseless and fabricated. After this India recalled all its diplomats and officials back to the country. Not only this, before this the Foreign Ministry summoned the Canadian High Commissioner in charge and expressed its sharp reaction and by late evening, six Canadian diplomats were expelled from the country.
However, Canada has claimed that India has been given sufficient evidence in this case but New Delhi has denied this. “All Canadian officials claim is that credible evidence has been presented to India. But that is simply not true,” said a ministry official, requesting anonymity. Even on Monday, in the press conference, Justin Trudeau was saying the same old things which he had said a year ago. On this, India has said that Trudeau's new allegations are inspired by vote bank politics because Trudeau is eyeing the support of Indian and Sikh communities in Canada.
On Tuesday, the diplomatic dispute between India and Canada once again deepened when Ottawa tried to link the Bishnoi gang with the agents of the Indian government in carrying out a covert operation there. New Delhi has again rejected his allegations. Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie did not rule out the possibility of imposing sanctions against India and said 'all options are under consideration'. On the other hand, India strongly rejected attempts by Canadian authorities to link Indian agents to criminal gangs in Canada. Official sources said Ottawa's claim that it had shared evidence with New Delhi in the Nijjar case is not true.
The sources also rejected Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's allegations that India was involved in several activities in Canada, including carrying out covert operations targeting Canadian citizens. In a press conference, Trudeau had pointed fingers at India in the Nijjar case and said that Canada will never tolerate the involvement of any foreign government in threatening and killing its citizens on its soil.
