The ongoing diplomatic row between India and Canada escalated with New Delhi recalling its top envoy to Ottawa and expelling six Canadian diplomats from the country.
The developments followed Ottawa naming India’s High Commissioner to Canada and a few other diplomats as 'persons of interest' in the investigation into Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar's murder.
In response, India initially announced the withdrawal of High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and the other diplomats from Canada. Soon after, India said it was expelling six Canadian diplomats from New Delhi, including the acting High Commissioner. All of them have been asked to leave India by the end of this week.
Earlier, in a statement announcing the
withdrawal of India's High Commissioner to Canada, the Ministry of External Affairs underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Justin Trudeau government's actions endangered the diplomats' safety.
This came after the Canadian Charge d'Affaires in New Delhi, Stewart Wheeler, was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs. He was informed that the baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable.
It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government's support for extremism, violence and separatism against India, the MEA statement said.
The Ministry of External Affairs said the Canadian government did not share a shred of evidence of India's involvement in Nijjar's killing despite repeated requests and accused Trudeau of doing vote bank politics and not doing enough to tackle separatist elements on Canadian soil.
The escalation by Canada followed a meeting last week between Trudeau and PM Narendra Modi in Laos after which the Canadian PM had said there were real issues between the two countries that needed to be addressed. Indian govt sources had responded by saying that there was no substantive engagement between the leaders and that bilateral ties could only be repaired if Canada took verifiable action against Khalistani separatists.
