India has told Canada that it must repatriate 41 diplomats by Oct. 10, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Ties between India and Canada have deteriorated in recent weeks after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of Sikh independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, 45, had been wanted by India for years and was gunned down outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C., on June 18.
In light of the recent killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the already strained diplomatic relations between India and Canada – two countries historically connected through trade and culture – have deteriorated further. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week accused Indian government agents of a role in Nijjar’s murder, a charge New Delhi categorically denied.
Terming Trudeau’s allegations “absurd and politically motivated”, India suspended a Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat action and suspended visa services for Canadian citizens. The Indian government also asked Trudeau to provide evidence to back his claim but received none, so far.
Ajit Doval looks nothing like a spy.
Short, balding and bespectacled, the 78-year-old national security adviser to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has none of the James Bond daring you might expect from one of India’s most storied spooks.
For decades, Canada was a safe haven for Sikhs. Many left their native India in the 1980s and ’90s after thousands died there during armed struggles for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan. Nearly 800,000 Sikhs live in Canada today, the largest community outside India.
While the Sikh separatist movement is hardly visible in India anymore, it is still very much alive within the diaspora in Canada. The relationship between India and Canada has been tense for many years because of this.
Radical Sikh activists stopped the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, from entering a Sikh temple in Scotland on Friday, media reports said.
An unverified video posted on Instagram showed a man confronting the Indian envoy at the Glasgow gurdwara, a Sikh temple, from entering the temple.
India media reported that the government had raised the issue with the UK’s Foreign Office, with The Hindu newspaper reporting that the Indian envoy was invited by the Guruwara committee but two people stopped him.
Canada assassination claim sparks rare consensus in India’s polarised politics and media
When Justin Trudeau stood up in Canadian parliament last week to announce there were “credible allegations” that agents linked to the Indian government had been involved in the assassination of a Sikh activist in a suburb of Vancouver, it sent reverberations across the world.
Countries from the US to the UK expressed concern at the allegations, urging India to cooperate with the investigation. Inside India, the response was defiant. The government called the allegations “absurd” and politically motivated and attempted to turn the tables, accusing Canada of being a rogue state that is a “safe haven for terrorists”.
The current India-Canada crisis has exposed a sharp disconnect between India and the West on the issue of Sikh separatism.
Ever since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged possible Indian involvement in the June assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia, New Delhi has doubled down on a long-standing grievance: Canada is home to dangerous anti-India extremists that Ottawa refuses to curb. It is a controversial contention, and one that Ottawa has never endorsed.
Nijjar was training recruits on machine guns in Mission BC.
h/t MW
Months after a pro-Khalistan activist was shot and killed in Surrey, B.C., a second Sikh activist was allegedly warned by law enforcement about threats to his life, according to a newly disclosed document.
The document, titled “duty to warn” is addressed to Gurmit Singh Toor and dated August 24. It was made public by pro-Khalistan activist group Sikhs For Justice.
Speaking through a translator, Toor confirmed to CBC News that Surrey RCMP and the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) came to his home and issued the warning. CBC News is working to confirm the veracity of the document with RCMP, but has not yet received a response.
India and Canada have engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions as part of an intensifying row over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, on Canadian soil.
The 45-year-old came to Canada as a refugee decades ago and had since became a Canadian citizen. He was an ardent advocate of establishing a sovereign state of Khalistan, a Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab region.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims that Indian agents were involved in the murder of Nijjar. India dismissed the allegations as “absurd.” However, Indian officials view Nijjar as a terrorist, a member of the banned Khalistan Commando Force, whom India links to targeted killings of various political and religious figures.
It is in Canada thanks to Justin and Jagmeet.
About 75 people rallied outside the Consul General of India in downtown Vancouver Monday to protest the reported involvement of the Indian government in killing Canadian citizen and Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar was a leader in the fight for the creation of a Sikh state in India called Khalistan. He was gunned down three months ago outside of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, where he was president. The 45-year-old was proclaimed a terrorist by India in 2020.
“… For Trudeau, it didn’t seem to matter that Nijjar stood accused of a long history of involvement in violence against India, and was suspected of masterminding bombings in the Sikh majority Indian state of Punjab and training terrorists in British Columbia. In 2022, India accused Nijjar of being involved in an attack on a Hindu priest in Punjab and announced a reward of around £10,000 for information that would lead to his arrest. Nijjar entered Canada on a fake passport in 1997. Despite this, he was able to gain Canadian citizenship.”
SURREY, British Columbia — At least six men and two vehicles were involved in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside his place of worship, according to video reviewed by The Washington Post and witness accounts, suggesting a larger and more organized operation than has previously been reported.
Muslim advocates in Canada have expressed anger and concern at allegations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh leader, stressing that Muslim and Sikh Canadians have long supported each other.
Last week, a diplomatic dispute escalated between Ottawa and New Delhi after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government was investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Justin’s greatest accomplishment has Canada divided into warring sectarian factions. Muslim, Hindu, Sikh – Leicester here we come.
The short version of the story is that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh nationalist figure, was killed in Canada. According to India, he’s a terrorist. The Trudeau government decided to incite a diplomatic crisis by accusing India of killing him. But the basis for some of this crisis seems to have come from the Biden administration.
India isn’t backing down on efforts to pressure, track and capture Sikh separatists in Canada in the face of a high-stakes diplomatic showdown between the governments of prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Narendra Modi.
After Canada’s assertion that there were “credible allegations” that the Indian state may have ordered the June killing of Surrey, B.C.’s Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an outspoken advocate of Sikh independence, law enforcement in India is instead ramping up the fight against individuals it considers to be terrorists, gangsters and fugitives from justice in this country.
