Montreal:

Canada said Thursday it had withdrawn 41 diplomats from India — fallout from a bitter row over the killing of a Khalistani terrorist on Canadian soil.

India planned to “unethically” revoke diplomatic immunity for all but 21 of Canada’s diplomats and their families by Friday, forcing Ottawa to pull out the others, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said.

“We have facilitated their safe departure from India,” Ms Joly added. “This means that our diplomats and their families have now left.”

Relations between India and Canada have plunged since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month publicly linked Indian intelligence to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which India has denied.

Nijjar, who advocated for a separate Sikh state carved out of India, was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.

“Revoking the diplomatic immunity of 41 diplomats is not only unprecedented, but also contrary to international law,” Ms Joly said Wednesday, but said Canada did not plan to retaliate in kind, so as to not “aggravate the situation.”

“Canada will continue to defend international law, which applies to all nations and will continue to engage with India,” she said.

“Now more than ever we need diplomats on the ground and we need to talk to one another,” Joly added.

– Countermeasures –

Canada has called for India to cooperate in the investigation but New Delhi has rejected the allegations and taken countermeasures, such as shutting down visa services for Canadians.

Ottawa also expelled an Indian diplomat over the affair.

External Affairs Minister SJaishankar said last month in New York that his country would be willing to examine any evidence presented by Canada.

“We have actually been badgering the Canadians. We’ve given them loads of information about organized crime leadership which operates out of Canada,” Mr Jaishankar said, referring to Sikh separatists.

“We have a situation where actually our diplomats are threatened, our consulates have been attacked and often comments are made (that are) interference in our politics,” he said.

The Indian government has called the Canadian accusations over the killing “absurd” and advised its nationals not to travel to certain Canadian regions “given the increase in anti-Indian activities.”

India also temporarily stopped processing visa applications in Canada.

Nijjar, who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015, was shot dead by two masked assailants in the parking lot of a Sikh temple near Vancouver in June.

Canada is home to some 770,000 Sikhs, who make up about two percent of the country’s population, with a vocal group calling for creating a separate state of Khalistan.

The Sikh separatist movement is largely finished within India, where security forces used deadly force to put down an insurgency in the state of Punjab in the 1980s.

The tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi have created a delicate situation for close Canadian ally Washington, which has in recent months taken steps to move closer to India as the United States seeks to limit Chinese influence in the region.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ottawa:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday called on India to cooperate with its investigation into the murder of a Khalistani terrorist after earlier this week pointing to Indian agents as suspects.

“We call upon the government of India to work with us to establish processes to uncover the truth of this matter and to allow for justice and accountability to be served,” Trudeau said on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He declined, however, to provide the evidence that led him on Monday to accuse India in the slaying, suggesting that would be left for courts to make public should the case ever go to trial.

On Monday, Trudeau triggered a major diplomatic row when he raised allegations that Indian agents played a role in the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, near Vancouver.

The fallout prompted tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and a forceful denial from India, which said any suggestion it played a role in Nijjar’s killing was “absurd.”

India also stopped handling visa applications in Canada, blaming “security threats” which they said were “disrupting” the work of their officials, and sought a reduction of Canadian diplomatic staff in India.

Trudeau insisted on Thursday that his government “is not looking to provoke or cause problems” when asked why Canada’s allies’ reactions to the allegations appeared muted.

Western powers led by the United States have been courting India for years, seeing a natural ally in the billion-plus democracy as concerns mount about China.

“There is no question that India is a country of growing importance, and a country that we need to continue to work with,” Trudeau said.

“But we are unequivocal around the importance of the rule of law and unequivocal about the importance of protecting Canadians.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)