Key Points
- India and Canada expelled each other’s top diplomats amid rising tensions over Nijjar’s murder.
- India claims its diplomats were withdrawn while Ottawa says they were expelled over the assassination row.
- Canada provided evidence linking India’s agents to Nijjar’s murder, prompting diplomatic escalation, which India calls “preposterous”.
India and Canada each expelled the other’s ambassador and five other top diplomats, after New Delhi said its envoy had been named among “persons of interest” following the killing of a Sikh separatist leader.
New Delhi stated it was withdrawing its six diplomats from Canada, but a government source in Ottawa told Agence France-Presse that they had been expelled, not withdrawn.
The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar severely strained the country’s diplomatic relations with India, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the crime.
The expulsion of the diplomats — the most senior envoys on both sides — is a major escalation in the row.
India “decided to expel” Ottawa’s acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, his deputy and four first secretaries, ordering they leave before midnight on Sunday.
Ottawa announced similar measures in return, with Canadian police saying they had “evidence pertaining to agents of the government of India’s involvement in serious criminal activity” in Canada.
Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as , to be carved out of India.
He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.
New Delhi had earlier stated it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation.
It said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat, and described the accusations as “ludicrous”.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in June 2023, sparking a diplomatic crisis between India and Canada. Source: AAP / Ethan Cairns
New Delhi’s foreign ministry said it had instructed Verma to return home.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” it said in a statement.
India denies allegations of involvement in Nijjar’s killing
India on Monday dismissed allegations that it was connected to the killing as “preposterous” and a “strategy of smearing India for political gains”.
Last year, the Indian government briefly restricted visas for Canadians and forced Ottawa to withdraw diplomats, and on Monday, it threatened further action.
“India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence, and separatism against India,” the foreign ministry stated.
The foreign ministry also summoned Canadian envoy Wheeler, who stated that Ottawa had provided India with the evidence it had requested.
“Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” Wheeler told reporters after leaving the ministry.
“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and investigate all those allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and the peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India.”
India then announced his expulsion.
Canada is home to around 770,000 Sikhs, who make up about two percent of the country’s population, with a vocal minority calling for an .
In November 2023, the US Justice Department also charged an Indian citizen living in the Czech Republic with allegedly plotting a similar assassination attempt on US soil.
Prosecutors said in unsealed court documents that an Indian government official was also involved in planning that attempt.
