TORONTO (AP) — India has instructed Canada to take away 41 of its 62 diplomats within the nation, an official aware of the matter mentioned Tuesday, ramping up a confrontation between the 2 nations over Canadian accusations that India might have been concerned within the killing of a Sikh separatist chief in suburban Vancouver.

The official spoke on situation of anonymity as they weren’t licensed to talk publicly forward of public response from the Canadian authorities later Tuesday. The official confirmed an earlier report from the Financial Times.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood up in Parliament final week and mentioned there have been “credible allegations” of Indian involvement within the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh chief who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, outdoors Vancouver. For years, India has mentioned Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, has hyperlinks to terrorism, an allegation Nijjar denied.

Arranging the killing of a Canadian citizen in Canada, house to just about 2 million individuals of Indian descent, can be unprecedented.

India has accused Canada for years of giving free rein to Sikh separatists, together with Nijjar.

India has additionally canceled visas for Canadians. Canada has not retaliated for that. India additionally beforehand expelled a senior Canadian diplomat after Canada expelled a senior Indian diplomat.

The newest expulsions by India have escalated tensions between the nations. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi throughout this month’s Group of 20 assembly in New Delhi, and some days later, Canada canceled a commerce mission to India deliberate for the autumn.

Nijjar, a plumber, was additionally a frontrunner in what stays of a once-strong motion to create an unbiased Sikh homeland, often called Khalistan. A bloody decadelong Sikh insurgency shook north India within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, till it was crushed in a authorities crackdown through which hundreds of individuals have been killed, together with outstanding Sikh leaders.

The Khalistan motion has misplaced a lot of its political energy however nonetheless has supporters within the Indian state of Punjab, in addition to within the sizable abroad Sikh diaspora. While the energetic insurgency ended years in the past, the Indian authorities has warned repeatedly that Sikh separatists have been attempting to make a comeback.