India expelled a senior Canadian diplomat on Tuesday and accused Canada of interfering in its internal affairs, ramping up a confrontation between the two countries over accusations that the Indian government may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh activist.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later said that Canada wasn鈥檛 looking to escalate tensions, but asked India to take the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar seriously after India called accusations that the Indian government may have been involved absurd.
鈥淚ndia and the government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness,鈥� Trudeau said. 鈥淲e are doing that. We are not looking to provoke or escalate. We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them and we want to work with the government of India to lay everything clear and to ensure there are proper processes.鈥�
Trudeau said Monday that his government was investigating allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Niijar.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a sigh of relief for the family and the Sikh community here because from day one we kind of had this idea and knowledge that if anything would happen to him the Indian government would be involved,鈥� said Niijar鈥檚 son, Baraj Singh Nijjar.
鈥淚t was just a matter of time for when the truth would come out. It鈥檚 finally coming to the public eyes that the Indian government is involved in this. It鈥檚 a really serious foreign interference case.鈥�
Niijar, 45, was gunned down in British Columbia in June, and Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat. India rejected the allegations as 鈥渁bsurd.鈥�
The dueling expulsions escalate tensions between Canada and India. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi, and a few days later Canada canceled a trade mission to India that was planned for the fall.
The movement to establish an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan, has been a target of the Indian government since the 1980s, when a Sikh insurgency emerged that lasted more than a decade. It was suppressed by a crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.
Nijjar was wanted by Indian authorities, who had accused him of ties to terrorism for years and offered a cash reward for information leading to his arrest. Nijjar denied any ties to terrorism, and was working with an organization known as Sikhs For Justice to organize an unofficial Sikh diaspora referendum on independence from India at the time of his killing.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a lawyer and spokesperson for Sikhs For Justice, has said Nijjar was warned by Canadian intelligence officials about being targeted for assassination by 鈥渕ercenaries鈥� before he was gunned down.
Trudeau told Parliament on Monday that Canadian security agencies were investigating 鈥渃redible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen.鈥�
ADVERTISEMENT
鈥淎ny involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,鈥� he said.
India鈥檚 foreign ministry dismissed the allegation as 鈥渁bsurd and motivated,鈥� and accused Canada of harboring 鈥渢errorists and extremists.鈥�
鈥淪uch unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India鈥檚 sovereignty and territorial integrity,鈥� it wrote in a statement issued earlier Tuesday.
India has long demanded that Canada take action against the Sikh independence movement, which is banned in India but has support in countries like Canada and the U.K. with sizable Sikh diaspora populations. Canada has a Sikh population of more than 770,000, about 2% of its total population.
In March, Modi鈥檚 government summoned the Canadian high commissioner in New Delhi, the top diplomat in the country, to complain about Sikh independence protests in Canada. In 2020, India鈥檚 foreign ministry also summoned the top diplomat over comments made by Trudeau about an agricultural protest movement associated with the state of Punjab, where many Sikhs live.
Critics accuse Modi鈥檚 Hindu nationalist government of seeking to suppress dissenters and activists using sedition laws and other legal weapons. Some critics of his administration, including intellectuals, activists, filmmakers, students and journalists have been arrested, creating what Modi鈥檚 opponents say is a culture of intimidation.
Critics accuse Modi鈥檚 Hindu nationalist government of seeking to suppress dissidents and activists using sedition laws and other legal weapons. Some critics of his administration, including intellectuals, activists, filmmakers, students and journalists have been arrested, creating what Modi鈥檚 opponents say is a culture of intimidation.
Under Modi鈥檚 rule, religious minorities, particularly Muslims, have faced increasing attacks by Hindu nationalists, and assaults on the press and free speech have grown, with his administration using internet shutdowns to quell protests.
Trudeau told Parliament that he brought up Nijjar鈥檚 slaying with Modi at the G20 meeting in New Delhi last week. He said he told Modi that any Indian government involvement would be unacceptable and that he asked for cooperation in the investigation.
At the G20 meeting, Modi expressed 鈥渟trong concerns鈥� over Canada鈥檚 handling of the Sikh independence movement during a meeting with Trudeau at the G20, India鈥檚 statement said.
The statement called on Canada to work with India on what New Delhi said is a threat to the Canadian Indian diaspora, and described the Sikh movement as 鈥減romoting secessionism and inciting violence鈥� against Indian diplomats.
Earlier this year, Sikh protesters pulled down the Indian flag at the country鈥檚 high commission in London and smashed the building鈥檚 window after India arrested a popular Sikh preacher. Protesters also smashed windows at the Indian Consulate In San Francisco and skirmished with embassy workers.
While in New Delhi for the G20, Trudeau skipped a dinner hosted by the Indian president, and local media reports said that he was snubbed by Modi when he got a quick 鈥減ull aside鈥� meeting instead of a bilateral meeting.
To make things worse, Trudeau was stuck in India for 36 hours after the summit ended because his flight was grounded because of a mechanical snag.
鈥淭rudeau鈥檚 turbulent India trip refuses to end,鈥� read the headline on the India Today website last week.
It鈥檚 unclear when exactly Trudeau brought up Nijjar鈥檚 case with Modi during the G20.
Some analysts in India questioned whether Canada had proof of Indian links to the killing, and whether Trudeau was trying to drum up support among the Sikh diaspora.
鈥淪uch a charge against India by a G7 nation is unprecedented. The Canadian government has deliberately made a spectacle of it to please its domestic constituency amongst the Sikh diaspora,鈥� said K.C. Singh, a former diplomat and strategic affairs expert. He added that Canada didn鈥檛 present hard evidence and that Trudeau鈥檚 statement 鈥渦nnecessarily upped the ante.鈥�
鈥淚ndia should鈥檝e seen it coming. Trudeau needed to be engaged, not snubbed during his India visit. Now it has reached a point of difficult return,鈥� Singh, the former diplomat, also remarked on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The British government said Tuesday that there are no plans to reinvestigate the death of a U.K-based Sikh activist in the wake of Canada鈥檚 claim India might have been behind the slaying of Nijjer.
Avtar Singh Khanda, who had played a prominent role in protests for an independent Sikh homeland, died in June in the central England city of Birmingham after falling ill. Supporters alleged be might have been poisoned, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak鈥檚 spokesman, Max Blain, said that police found no suspicious circumstances.
The Trudeau government鈥檚 allegations are awkward for the U.K., which is a close ally of Canada in the 鈥淔ive Eyes鈥� intelligence-sharing alliance, but is also seeking a free trade deal with India.
鈥淭hese are serious allegations. It is right that the Canadian authorities should be looking into them,鈥� Blain said, adding that it would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation is underway.
In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple in the state鈥檚 Amritsar city to flush out Sikh separatists, who had taken refuge there. The controversial operation killed around 400, according to official figures, although Sikh groups estimate the toll to be higher.
The prime minister who ordered the raid, Indira Gandhi, was killed afterwards by two of her bodyguards, who were Sikh. Her death triggered a series of anti-Sikh riots, in which Hindu mobs went from house to house across northern India, pulling Sikhs from their homes, hacking many to death and burning others alive.
____
Rob Gillies reported from Toronto. Aamer Madhani in New York, Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi, and Jill Lawless in London, contributed to this report.
