India and Canada expel top diplomats amid row over Nijjar’s assassination

The long-simmering diplomatic dispute between India and Canada dramatically worsened on Monday as both countries expelled each other’s high-ranking officials over the June 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil.

Speaking on live television on Monday following a diplomatically charged day, prime minister Justin Trudeau said India made a “monumental mistake” in supporting criminal activity against Canadians on Canadian soil.

His comments came as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) laid out the first details of stunning allegations against Indian government agents in the country. Canada accused Indian officials of playing a direct role in the assassination of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The allegations by Ottawa have inflamed tensions in the already sour relationship between the two countries which deteriorated last year after Mr Trudeau announced that his government had evidence linking Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar. The claim sparked a furious reaction from India which denied the allegations.

On Monday, the Indian foreign ministry issued a blistering response, after it received diplomatic communication suggesting that the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats are “persons of interest” in Canada’s investigation.

It said India rejects the “preposterous imputations” and called it the political agenda of the Trudeau government.

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Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including India’s high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, and consular officials from the country “in relation to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the Government of India”, said Canada’s foreign affairs department, Global Affairs Canada.

The Indian foreign ministry retaliated by ordering the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats, including acting high commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler.

He was also summoned by India’s External Affairs ministry to protest Canada expelling Indian diplomats.

"It is in the interests of both our countries and the peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this,” Mr Wheeler told reporters before leaving the foreign ministry.

Analysts say doubling down from both sides over Canada alleging a wider and worsening campaign by the Narendra Modi government to target what it considers anti-India elements could mean a collapse of the relationship for a long time in future.

Calling it an “extraordinary development”, Michael Kugleman, the director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, said “we can’t rule out the possibility of a formal cut off of diplomatic ties”.

“With so much anger on both sides, and with each side doubling down on its position-Canada saying India is committing transnational repression and India saying Canada is sponsoring terrorists-it’s hard to imagine tensions easing anytime soon,” he told The Independent.

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Canada’s response is driven by a number of factors, including frustration with New Delhi as well as domestic politics, Mr Kugleman said.

“But it’s also concluded that it’s in the public interest to provide more information about India’s role in transnational repression-perhaps in part prompted by the hope that this will prompt India to ease up on the activities that it claims India is undertaking on Canadian soil,” he added.

Mr Trudeau backed his statements on the RCMP’s unusual release of details of the investigations.

The RCMP said an “extraordinary situation” has compelled it to speak about what it has discovered during its multiple investigations into the involvement of Indian agents in “serious criminal activity in Canada”.

“It is not our normal process to publicly disclose information about ongoing investigations, in an effort to preserve their integrity. However, we feel it is necessary to do so at this time due to the significant threat to public safety in our country,” it said.

It said the law enforcement situation has worsened and they have obtained evidence that demonstrates four very serious issues, including violent extremism, Indian government agents’ alleged link to homicides and violent acts, and interference into democratic processes and use of organised crime.

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Mr Trudeau said: “I think it is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians, here on Canadian soil. Whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts, it is absolutely unacceptable.

"No country, particularly not a democracy that upholds the rule of law, can accept this fundamental violation of its sovereignty," he said.

RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme also addressed a hastily organised conference, saying the team has learned “a significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India”.

Mr Duheme declined to provide specifics, citing ongoing investigations, but said there have been well over a dozen credible and imminent threats that have resulted in police warning members of the South Asian community, notably the pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence, movement.

Canada‘s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, said India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunity and cooperate in the investigation but it refused.

She asked that India‘s government support the ongoing investigation "as it remains in both our countries’ interest to get to the bottom of this".

She said the violence "actually increased" following the allegations a year ago.

Four Indian nationals have been arrested and charged in Nijjar’s killing. Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia in June 2023.

He was a Canadian citizen born to Indian parents who owned a plumbing business while spearheading the Khalistani movement to demand an independent Sikh homeland within India.

India designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death had been seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest.