CNN
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Canada’s accusation that India could have been concerned within the assassination of a Sikh activist on its soil has triggered a rising row with Ottawa and New Delhi each expelling senior diplomats, sending relations between the 2 international locations plunging.

The tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions got here after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Canada was investigating “credible allegations” linking India to the June killing of Canadian citizen and outstanding Sikh chief, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

“Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau stated in parliament on Monday, including his authorities would take all steps crucial “to hold perpetrators of this murder to account.”

Canada stated it had kicked out an Indian diplomat, who overseas affairs minister Mélanie Joly described as the top of the Indian intelligence company within the nation.

“Today we’re acting by expelling a key diplomat, but we will get to the bottom of this,” she instructed reporters in Ottawa, including Trudeau has raised this situation with each US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

India’s overseas ministry on Tuesday responded in type, saying it had expelled a senior Canadian diplomat based mostly in India.

“The concerned diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days,” it stated in a press release. “The decision reflects Government of India’s growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities.”

Nijjar was a outstanding Sikh chief in western Canada, and in line with native police, he was gunned down in his truck in June by two masked gunmen outdoors a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.

His dying each shocked and outraged the Sikh neighborhood in Canada, one of many largest outdoors of India and residential to greater than 770,000 members of the non secular minority.

Following Trudeau’s feedback, two outstanding Sikh neighborhood teams in Canada, the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council (BCGC) and Ontario Gurdwaras Committee (OGC), urged the Canadian authorities 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 teams added in a joint assertion.

Nijjar was an outspoken supporter of the creation of a separate Sikh homeland often called Khalistan, in line with a press release from the World Sikh Organization, and infrequently led peaceable protests towards what the advocacy group known as the “violation of human rights actively taking place in India and in support of Khalistan.”

The Khalistan motion is outlawed in India and regarded a nationwide safety risk by the federal government – a lot of teams related to the motion are listed as “terrorist organizations” beneath India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Nijjar’s title appeared on the Home Ministry’s list of UAPA terrorists.

In 2020, the Indian National Investigation Agency accused him of “trying to radicalize Sikh community across the world in favor of creation of ‘Khalistan,’” including that he had been “trying to incite Sikhs to vote for secession, agitate against the Government of India and carry out violent activities.”

India on Tuesday stated it rejected Trudeau’s allegations, calling them “absurd and motivated.”

“We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law,” a press release launched by the nation’s overseas ministry stated.

“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The inaction of the Canadian Government on this matter has been a long-standing and continuing concern.”

The White House is “deeply concerned” concerning the allegations, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson stated in a press release.

“We remain in regular contact with our Canadian partners. It is critical that Canada’s investigation proceed and the perpetrators be brought to justice,” she stated.

Canadian police haven’t arrested anybody in reference to Nijjar’s homicide. But in an August replace, police launched a press release saying they had been investigating three suspects and issued an outline of a attainable getaway automobile, asking for the general public’s assist.

A spokesperson for Australian overseas minister Penny Wong stated the nation can be “deeply concerned” by the allegations.

“We are closely engaged with partners on developments. We have conveyed our concerns at senior levels to India,” a press release shared with CNN stated.

“We understand these reports will be particularly concerning to some Australian communities. The Indian diaspora are valued and important contributors to our vibrant and resilient multicultural society, where all Australians can peacefully and safely express their views.”

Canada’s allegations towards the Indian authorities, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are prone to additional bitter relations between the 2 international locations.

An ongoing commerce deal between them has been paused, India’s commerce and commerce minister stated, in line with local reports, including there are “certain issues which are of serious concern.”

The situation of activism inside Canada’s massive Sikh diaspora has lengthy been one of many sources of stress.

When Modi hosted the Group of 20 (G20) leaders in New Delhi earlier this month, he didn’t maintain a one-on-one assembly with Trudeau, as an alternative assembly on the sidelines of the summit, the place the Indian chief “conveyed our strong concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada,” in line with a press release from the Indian authorities.

Relations between the 2 leaders have been frosty for a number of years.

When Trudeau visited India in 2018, his calendar, which was comparatively gentle on diplomatic conferences, was seen by many as a “snub” from New Delhi.

Analysts on the time pointed to Trudeau’s perceived sympathy for Sikh activists as a particular area of contention.

In 2017, the Canadian chief had been seen at a Sikh occasion in Toronto the place separatist flags and posters depicting an extremist Sikh chief killed in a 1984 Indian Army operation had been displayed.

In its assertion about Trudeau’s allegations on Tuesday, the Indian authorities stated: “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 murders, human trafficking and organised crime is not new,” the assertion stated. “We urge the Government of Canada to take prompt and effective legal action against all anti-India elements operating from their soil.”

The Sikh faith was based in Punjab within the fifteenth century by Guru Nanak and has about 25 million followers worldwide. They are a minority in India, comprising lower than 2% of the nation’s 1.4 billion individuals, however kind a majority within the northern state of Punjab, which was as soon as house to a big and highly effective Sikh empire.

The origins of the modern Khalistan movement hint again to across the time of India’s independence from Britain in 1947, when some Sikhs demanded {that a} nation be carved within the state of Punjab for followers of the religion.

When the Partition rapidly divided the previous colony alongside non secular traces – sending Muslims to the newly fashioned nation of Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs to newly impartial India – Punjab, which was sliced in half, noticed among the worst violence.

Around this time, Sikhs started a higher battle for political and cultural autonomy, students have stated, and the Khalistan motion gained prominence.

Over the years, violent clashes have erupted between followers of the motion and the Indian authorities, claiming many lives.

It got here to a head in 1984 when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered Indian troops to storm Amritsar’s Golden Temple – Sikhism’s holiest shrine – to kill Sikh separatists. That operation precipitated big anger inside the Sikh neighborhood and Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards within the aftermath.

Deadly violence erupted within the days following her dying, killing greater than 3,000 individuals – largely Sikh.

A yr later the violence spilled over to Canada, when Sikh separatists bombed an Air India aircraft that had taken off from Toronto airport, killing all 329 individuals aboard, together with quite a few Canadians of Indian descent.

While Khalistan supporters inside India stay on the margins, the motion continues to evoke a degree of sympathy from some Sikhs inside the world diaspora, notably in Canada, Britain and Australia.

A small however influential variety of these Sikhs help the thought of Khalistan, with referendums periodically held to succeed in a consensus to ascertain a separate homeland.