India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row

Toronto (AFP): India and Canada each expelled the other’s ambassador and five other top diplomats after New Delhi said its envoy had been named among “persons of interest” following the killing of a Sikh separatist leader.

New Delhi said it was withdrawing its six diplomats from Canada, but an Ottawa government source told AFP that they had been expelled, not withdrawn.

The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar crashed the country’s diplomatic relations with India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the crime.

The expulsion of the diplomats — the most senior envoys on both sides — is a major escalation in the row.

India “decided to expel” Ottawa’s acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, his deputy and four first secretaries, ordering they leave before midnight on Sunday.

Ottawa announced similar measures in return, with Canadian police saying they had “evidence pertaining to agents of the government of India’s involvement in serious criminal activity” in Canada.

Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.

He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.

Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.

New Delhi had earlier said it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation.

It said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that the accusations were “ludicrous”.

New Delhi’s foreign ministry said it had told Verma to return home.

“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” it said in a statement.