() – Canada’s accusation that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh activist on its soil has triggered an escalating row with Ottawa and New Delhi, which have expelled top diplomats, sending relations between the two countries into a tailspin.
The retaliatory diplomatic expulsions came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was investigating “credible allegations” linking India to the June killing of Canadian citizen and prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
“Over the past several weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between Indian government agents and the murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau told Parliament on Monday, adding that his government would take all necessary steps “to hold the perpetrators of this murder accountable.”
Canada said it had expelled an Indian diplomat, whom Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly described as the head of India’s intelligence agency in the country.
“Today we acted by expelling a key diplomat, but we will get to the bottom of this,” he told reporters in Ottawa, adding that Trudeau has raised the issue with both U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
India’s foreign ministry responded in kind on Tuesday, saying it had expelled a senior Canadian diplomat based in India.
“The diplomat in question has been asked to leave India within the next five days,” it said in a statement. “The decision reflects the growing concern of the Government of India over the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal affairs and their involvement in anti-India activities.”
Nijjar was a prominent Sikh leader in western Canada and local police say he was shot dead in his pickup truck in June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.
His death shocked and outraged Canada’s Sikh community, one of the largest outside India and home to more than 770,000 members of the religious minority.
Following Trudeau’s comments, two prominent Sikh community groups in Canada, the British Columbia Council of Gurdwaras (BCGC) and the Ontario Committee of Gurdwaras (OGC), urged the Canadian government to “immediately suspend all intelligence, investigative and prosecutorial cooperation with India.”
“Canada’s comprehensive response must reflect the gravity of India’s role in the premeditated murder of a Sikh dissident living in Canada,” the groups added in a joint statement.
Nijjar was a strong supporter of the creation of a separate Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, according to a statement from the World Sikh Organization, and often led peaceful protests against what the advocacy group called the “violation of human rights actively taking place in India and in support of Khalistan.”
The Khalistan movement is banned in India and is considered a threat to national security by the government; several groups associated with the movement are listed as “terrorist organisations” under India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Nijjar’s name appeared in the UAPA terrorist list of the Ministry of the Interior.
In 2020, India’s National Investigation Agency accused him of “attempting to radicalise the Sikh community worldwide in favour of the creation of ‘Khalistan’”, adding that he had been “inciting Sikhs to vote for secession, agitate against the government of India and carry out violent activities”.
India said Tuesday it rejected Trudeau’s allegations, calling them “absurd and motivated.”
“We are a democratic political system with a strong commitment to the rule of law,” said a statement issued by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“These baseless allegations are intended to divert attention from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided safe haven in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Canadian government’s inaction on this matter has been a long-standing and ongoing concern.”
The White House is “deeply concerned” by the allegations, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
“We remain in regular contact with our Canadian partners. It is critical that Canada’s investigation moves forward and that the perpetrators are brought to justice,” he said.
Canadian police have not arrested anyone in connection with Nijjar’s murder. But in an August update, police issued a statement saying they were investigating three suspects and issued a description of a possible getaway vehicle, asking for the public’s help.
A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the country was also “deeply concerned” by the allegations.
“We are closely engaged with partners on developments. We have conveyed our concerns at senior levels to India,” a statement shared with said.
“We understand that these reports will be particularly concerning to some Australian communities. The Indian diaspora is a valuable and important contributor to our vibrant and resilient multicultural society, where all Australians can express their views peacefully and safely.”
Canada’s accusations against the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are likely to further sour relations between the two countries.
An ongoing trade deal between them has been suspended, India’s Commerce Minister said, according to local reportsadding that there are “certain issues that are of serious concern.”
The issue of activism within Canada’s large Sikh diaspora has long been a source of tension.
When Modi hosted the Group of 20 (G20) leaders in New Delhi earlier this month, he did not hold a one-on-one meeting with Trudeau but instead met on the sidelines of the summit, where the Indian leader “conveyed our deep concerns about the continued anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada,” according to an Indian government statement.
Relations between the two leaders have been frosty for several years.
When Trudeau visited India in 2018, his schedule, which featured relatively few diplomatic meetings, was seen by many as a “snub” from New Delhi.
Analysts at the time pointed to Trudeau’s perceived sympathy for Sikh activists as a particular area of contention.
In 2017, the Canadian leader was seen at a Sikh event in Toronto where separatist flags and posters depicting a Sikh extremist leader killed in an Indian army operation in 1984 were displayed.
In its statement on Trudeau’s allegations on Tuesday, the Indian government said: “That Canadian political figures have openly expressed sympathy for such elements remains a matter of deep concern.”
“The space given in Canada to a range of illegal activities, including murder, human trafficking and organised crime, is not new,” the statement said. “We urge the Government of Canada to take swift and effective legal action against all anti-India elements operating from its territory.”
The Sikh religion was founded in Punjab in the 15th century by Guru Nanak and has around 25 million followers worldwide. They are a minority in India, making up less than 2% of the country’s 1.4 billion people, but form a majority in the northern state of Punjab, once home to a large and powerful Sikh empire.
The origins of the modern Khalistan movement They date back roughly to the time of India’s independence from Britain in 1947, when some Sikhs demanded that a nation be created in the state of Punjab for followers of the faith.
When partition hastily divided the former colony along religious lines (sending Muslims to the newly formed nation of Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs to newly independent India), the halved Punjab witnessed some of the worst violence.
Around this time, Sikhs began a major struggle for political and cultural autonomy, scholars have said, and the Khalistan movement gained prominence.
Over the years, violent clashes have erupted between followers of the movement and the Indian government, claiming many lives.
A critical point was reached in 1984, when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered Indian troops to storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar – Sikhism’s holiest shrine – to kill Sikh separatists. The operation sparked widespread anger within the Sikh community, and Gandhi was subsequently assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.
Deadly violence erupted in the days after his death, killing more than 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs.
A year later, the violence spread to Canada, when Sikh separatists bombed an Air India plane taking off from Toronto airport, killing all 329 people on board, including many Canadians of Indian descent.
While Khalistan supporters in India remain on the sidelines, the movement continues to evoke a level of sympathy from some Sikhs within the global diaspora, particularly in Canada, Britain and Australia.
A small but influential number of these Sikhs support the idea of Khalistan, and referendums are held periodically to reach a consensus on establishing a separate homeland.
– Akanksha Sharma and Bex Wright contributed to this report.
Add Comment