Canada’s prime minister has said Canadian security agencies are investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the killing of a prominent Sikh-Canadian activist earlier this year, Aljazeera reported.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday afternoon, Justin Trudeau said he personally conveyed “deep concerns” to his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi earlier this month.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was fatally shot on June 18 outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a city in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia, spurring widespread questions and condemnation.
“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said on Monday.
“In the strongest possible terms, I continue to urge the government of India to cooperate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter.”
India’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations, which it described as “absurd”, saying they had also been rejected by Modi when mentioned by Trudeau, according to Aljazeera.
“Allegations of Government of India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated,” the ministry said in a statement. “We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law.”
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said later on Monday that the government had expelled an Indian diplomat – the head of India’s external intelligence agency, known as RAW, in Canada – over the allegations.
She did not provide additional details, such as the official’s name or when the expulsion took place.
“We see this possible breach of sovereignty as completely unacceptable, and so that is also why we’re coming [out] with this information today,” Joly told reporters during a brief news conference.
The Indian foreign ministry statement also rejected Joly’s comments.
The Globe and Mail newspaper first reported that Canadian national security authorities had “what they consider credible intelligence that India was behind” the killing of Nijjar, Aljazeera reported.
Sources that spoke to the Canadian news outlet did not say how they made that determination.
“The Canadian government has privately ruled out severing diplomatic relations with New Delhi but is considering measures to respond to what it considers a serious violation of Canadian sovereignty,” the newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.
