A diplomatic spat between Canada and India is back in the spotlight amid growing concerns about foreign interference and ongoing investigations into the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia.
In mutual moves, the two countries expelled each other’s diplomats on Monday. Ottawa said it would be expelled Six Indian diplomats and consular officials “in connection with a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents associated with the Indian government.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government acted “to disrupt the chain of operations that runs from Indian diplomats here in Canada to criminal organizations, directing violent influences on Canadians across this country.”
Agents working at the Indian High Commission in Ottawa and consulates in Vancouver and Toronto were behind dozens of violent crimes across Canada targeting opponents of the Narendra Modi government, Global News has learned.
Although they held diplomatic and consular posts on paper, Indian agents played key roles in a spate of shootings, killings, threats, arson and extortion in Canada, according to highly placed sources familiar with the matter.
Most of the victims were supporters of the Khalistan movement, which seeks independence for India’s Sikh-majority Punjab region. But the sources said others were merely rivals of the government.
The revelation comes as Canadian law enforcement continues to investigate the killing of Hardeep Singh Nigar in Surrey, British Columbia, where the killers were allegedly linked to Indian government agents.
Trudeau on Monday reiterated his call on New Delhi to cooperate with Ottawa in the ongoing investigation into alleged criminal activity linked to the Indian government.
“We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government in threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil – a completely unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and international law.” Trudeau said in a statement.
India has long denied any involvement in Al-Najjar’s killing and on Monday accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda.”
“The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous accusations and attributes them to the Trudeau government’s political agenda centered around vote bank politics.” The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
As tensions rise between the two countries, here’s what happened and how we got here:
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, investigating Najjar’s killing, said Monday they have a significant amount of information about criminal activity allegedly organized by Indian government agents.
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Investigations revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials residing in Canada are exploiting their official positions to engage in “clandestine activities.” RCMP said.
Evidence points to “violent extremism” in both countries, and links Indian government agents to murders, acts of violence, and the use of organized crime targeting Canada’s South Asian community, as well as interference in democratic processes, according to the RCMP.
Global Affairs Canada The expulsion included six Indian diplomats and consular officials.
Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma allegedly supervised the operation. Another diplomat based in Ottawa, as well as two consular officials in Toronto and two others in Vancouver, are allegedly involved.
In a retaliatory move… India expelled six Canadian diplomatsIt asked them to leave by Saturday, October 19, and withdrew its envoy named in the RCMP investigation from Canada.
Relations between India and Canada have been tense since 2023 when Trudeau said Canadian intelligence agencies had credible evidence linking Indian government agents to the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nigar.
Al-Najjar was killed on June 18, 2023, when two gunmen opened fire on his pickup truck as he was leaving the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey, where he was president.
So far, four Indian nationals – Karan Brar, Amandeep Singh, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh – have been charged with murder and conspiracy in Nagar’s killing.
Najjar, 45, was a well-known activist who fled India and came to Canada in 1997.
He was a Canadian citizen, a plumber, and a prominent leader of the Khalistan movement seeking independence for India’s Sikh-majority state of Punjab.
Modi’s government has long accused Naggar of leading what it describes as a terrorist group behind the attacks in India, although no credible evidence has ever been provided.
India has repeatedly pressured Canada to arrest him over the years.
Three months after his killing, Trudeau went public with his claims that investigators had found credible evidence that Indian government agents were possibly involved. India denied the accusation.
What is the Khalistan movement?
The Khalistan movement is considered a security threat by the Indian government.
The movement dates back to the conflicts over the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. Sikh separatists sought a homeland in the negotiations that preceded the partition of the Indian Punjab region between the two new countries.
The separatists said their homeland would be called Khalistan, meaning “the land of the pure,” and that it should be created outside Punjab.
The Khalistan movement eventually became a bloody armed insurgency that rocked India in the 1970s and 1980s. It was centered in the northern state of Punjab, where Sikhs are the majority, although they make up about 1.7 percent of India’s total population.
The rebellion lasted for more than a decade, and was suppressed by an Indian government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.
There is no active insurgency in Punjab today, but the Khalistan movement has supporters in the state as well as in the Sikh diaspora outside India.
The movement is supported by sectors of the Sikh diaspora in Canada, which has the largest Sikh population outside Punjab, and in Britain, Australia and the United States.
Why is this happening now?
Canada has asked India to waive diplomatic and consular immunities for the individuals who have now been expelled, so they can be interviewed by the RCMP.
But according to Ottawa, India has refused to cooperate.
The rising tensions come as the federal Foreign Interference Inquiry continues to investigate allegations of interference by countries such as India and China in the 2019 and 2021 elections, and in Canadian society more broadly.
Both the Foreign Interference Committee and Parliamentarians’ National Security and Intelligence Committee (NSICOP) have ranked India as the second-most serious foreign interference threat to Canada, after China.
– With files from Stuart Bell and Mercedes Stevenson of Global News, Reuters and the Associated Press
