NEW DELHI (AP) — India advised Canada to cut back its diplomatic workers and stopped issuing visas to its residents Thursday as a rift widened between the once-close allies over Ottawa’s allegation that New Delhi might have been concerned within the killing of a Canadian citizen.

Ties between the 2 nations — key strategic companions in safety and commerce — have plunged to their lowest level in years since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated there have been “credible allegations” of Indian involvement within the assassination of a Sikh separatist activist in June in a Vancouver suburb.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen who had been needed by India for years, was gunned down outdoors the temple he led within the metropolis of Surrey. Nijjar, a plumber, was born in India however turned a Canadian citizen in 2007.

Speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Trudeau acknowledged the difficult diplomatic state of affairs he confronted.

“There is no question that India is a country of growing importance and a country that we need to continue to work with,” he said. “We are not looking to provoke or cause problems but we are unequivocal around the importance of the rule of law and unequivocal about the importance of protecting Canadians.”

The bombshell Monday allegation by Trudeau set off an international tit-for-tat, with each country expelling a diplomat. India called the allegations “absurd.”

Canada has yet to provide any evidence to back Trudeau’s allegations, and Canadian UN Ambassador Bob Rae indicated Thursday that it may not come very soon. “This is very early days,” Rae told reporters at the United Nations, insisting that while facts will emerge, they must “come out in the course of the pursuit of justice.”

“That’s what we name the rule of legislation in Canada,” he stated.

On Thursday, the corporate that processes Indian visas in Canada introduced that visa providers had been suspended till additional discover. The BLS Indian Visa Application Center gave no additional particulars.

The suspension signifies that Canadians who don’t have already got visas won’t be able to journey to India till providers resume. Canadians are among the many high vacationers to India. In 2021, 80,000 Canadian vacationers visited the nation, in response to India’s Bureau of Immigration.

Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi blamed the visa suspension, which incorporates visas issued in third nations, on issues of safety.

“Security threats being faced by our High Commission and consulates in Canada have disrupted their normal functioning. Accordingly, they are temporarily unable to process visa applications,” Bagchi advised reporters. “We will be reviewing the situation on a regular basis.”

He gave no particulars on the alleged threats.

The announcement rapidly rippled throughout Canada, particularly amongst folks with ties to India.

Sukhwinder Dhillon, a 56-year-old grocery retailer proprietor in Montreal, stated he had a visit deliberate to his birthplace in India to see household and kind out his deceased father’s property. Dhillon, who got here to Canada in 1998, stated he makes the journey again each two or three years, and he has misplaced two folks in his speedy household since he was final residence.

“My father passed, and my brother passed,” Dhillon stated. “I want to go now … Now I don’t know when we’ll go.”

Bagchi, the Indian international ministry spokesman, additionally referred to as for a discount in Canadian diplomats in India, saying they outnumbered Indian diplomats in Canada.

“We have knowledgeable the Canadian authorities that there ought to be parity” in staffing, he said.

The Canadian High Commission in New Delhi said Thursday that all its consulates in India are open and continue to serve clients. It said some of its diplomats had received threats on social media, prompting it to assess its “staff complement in India.” It added that Canada expects India to provide security for its diplomats and consular officers working there.

On Wednesday, India warned its citizens to be careful when traveling to Canada because of “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate-crimes.”

Canada has yet to provide any evidence of Indian involvement in the killing. India’s security and intelligence branches have long been active in South Asia and are suspected in a number of killings in Pakistan. But arranging the killing of a Canadian citizen in Canada, home to nearly 2 million people of Indian descent, would be unprecedented.

Bagchi accused Canada of providing a safe haven for terrorists. He said India has regularly provided Canada with specific evidence about criminal activities by people based on its soil, but the information has not been acted upon.

India has criticized Canada for years over giving free rein to Sikh separatists, including Nijjar. New Delhi had accused him of having links to terrorism, which he denied.

Nijjar was a local leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. A bloody decadelong Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s until it was crushed in a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

While the active insurgency ended decades ago, the Indian government has warned that Sikh separatists are trying to stage a comeback and pressed countries like Canada, where Sikhs comprise over 2% of the population, to do more in stopping them.

At the time of his killing, Nijjar was working to organize an unofficial Sikh diaspora referendum on independence from India.

New Delhi’s anxieties about Sikh separatist groups in Canada have lengthy been a pressure on the connection, however the two have maintained robust protection and commerce ties and share strategic pursuits over China’s international ambitions.

In March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities summoned the Canadian excessive commissioner in New Delhi, its high diplomat within the nation, to complain about Sikh independence protests in Canada.

But indicators of a broader diplomatic rift emerged on the summit of the Group of 20 main world economies hosted by India earlier this month. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Modi, and some days later Canada canceled a commerce mission to India deliberate for the autumn. A commerce deal between the 2 is now on pause.

On Wednesday, India’s National Investigation Agency stated it has intensified its crackdown on Sikh insurgents working in India.

It introduced rewards of as much as 1 million rupees ($12,000) for data resulting in the arrest of 5 insurgents, one among whom is believed to be primarily based in neighboring Pakistan.

The company accused them of extorting cash from companies for a banned Sikh group, the Babbar Khalsa International, and of focused killings in India. “They also have established a network of operatives in various countries to further their terrorist activities in India,” it stated in a press release, with out naming any nation.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting insurgencies in Kashmir and Punjab, fees that Islamabad denies.

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Associated Press journalists Jennifer Peltz in New York and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed reporting.