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Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Indian Nationalists are accusing Hardeep Singh Nijjar of AI 182-Kanishka bombing.
India on Tuesday (September 19) expelled a top Canadian diplomat hours after Canada’s similar move of expelling an Indian diplomat.
The tit-for-tat moves mark a significant strain in the bilateral relations, coming at a time when India is already expressing displeasure over Canada’s perceived inaction regarding Sikh separatists advocating for an independent homeland they call Khalistan.
“This will certainly strain the relationship further, especially considering that the statement comes from the top leadership of Canada without substantial proof. Canada’s response to the protests also appears to be a knee-jerk reaction without much thought. India, in this situation, has legitimate concerns. If the Indian embassy is being attacked, the country has the sovereign right to register its protest, and that’s precisely what India has done. However, Canada has failed to recognise this,” Dr Dhananjay Tripathi, Associate professor and Chairperson at the department of International relations, South Asian University, New Delhi, told WION.
“If we compare it with the pro-Khalistan protest that took place in the UK, the government there dealt with it very sensibly. Canada bears a similar responsibility to ensure that such violence does not occur on its soil. Unfortunately, instances of violence have occurred in Canada and have been seemingly overlooked by Canadian authorities,” he added.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described in parliament what he called credible allegations that India was connected to Nijjar’s assassination in British Columbia state in June.
The Indian government dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and asked Canada instead to crack down on anti-India groups operating in its territory.
India’s foreign ministry on Tuesday responded in kind, saying it had expelled a senior Canadian diplomat based in India.
“The concerned diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days,” it said in a statement. “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 prominent Sikh leader in western Canada, and according to local police, he was gunned down in his truck in June by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.
His death both shocked and outraged the Sikh community in Canada, one of the largest outside of India and home to more than 770,000 members of the religious minority.
The tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was investigating “credible allegations” linking India to the June killing of Canadian citizen and prominent Sikh leader, 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 said in parliament on Monday, adding his government would take all steps necessary “to hold perpetrators of this murder to account.”
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