In a tit-for-tat move, India also expelled a senior Canadian diplomat, hours after Ottawa expelled a top Indian official over the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar earlier this year.
Last Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his speech to Parliament alleged that India was involved in the killing of Nijja in the state of British Columbia last June.
The Indian government later rejected the allegation as “absurd” and India accused Canada of harboring Khalistani activists. The Sikh independence movement in India is known as the Khalistan Movement.
It may be noted here that Nizar, 45, was shot dead on June 18 outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, Vancouver, three years after India listed him as a “terrorist”.
Last Monday, Trudeau said any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen was an “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
On Tuesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said allegations of India’s involvement in any violence in Canada were “unfounded and ulterior motives”.
