Canada announced this Monday (10/14/2024) the expulsion of the ambassador and five Indian diplomats from the country, at a time when local police claim to have “evidence” of the involvement of the New Delhi government in cases of “intimidation, harassment, extortion and coercion” on Canadian territory.

For its part, India had announced a few hours earlier that it was withdrawing its highest diplomatic representative from Canada because he was under investigation with other officials for the murder last year , of a Sikh separatist leader.

“We have no confidence in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensuring their security,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Therefore, the Indian government has decided to recall the High Commissioner (Sanjay Kumar Verma) along with other diplomats and officials,” he added.

The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar severed diplomatic relations between the two countries, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to the crime.

According to the ministry, the high commissioner is a respected career diplomat and the accusations against him are “ridiculous and deserve to be treated with contempt.”

Nijjar, who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015, advocated declaring part of India an independent Sikh state, known as Khalistan.

He was wanted by Indian authorities for terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. So far, four Indians have been arrested in connection with Nijjar's murder, which occurred in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.

rr (afp/Reuters)