’Leave within 5 days’: India ousts senior Canada Diplomat in tit-for-tat move

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

New Delhi, Sep 19, 2023: A senior Canadian diplomat has been expelled by India in a tit-for-tat move after Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed “foreign powers" were behind the killing of pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force terrorist group, and sacked an Indian diplomat.

 

High Commissioner to India Cameron MacKay was summoned by MEA headquarters at South Block in New Delhi on Tuesday amid India-Canada fireworks over Khalitsani terrorist’s death.

The diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days, sources said.

In a statement, MEA said that 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.

Soon after the expulsion, MEA sources told News18 that the ministry’s grounds of diplomat expulsions are “strong and was in mind for long".

“Canadian diplomat was involved in identifying many things possibly, including targets and workers for top gangsters sitting in Canada," the source added.

The MEA sources added that charges against diplomat are serious in nature.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on Monday said ‘foreign powers’ were behind the killing of pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force terrorist group. He claimed the Indian government played a role in his fatal shooting.

The ministry of external affairs on Tuesday said the claims made by the Canadian Prime Minister are ‘motivated’ and ‘absurd’.

“We have seen and rejected the statement of the Canadian Prime Minister in their Parliament, as also the statement by their Foreign Minister. Allegations of the Government of India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated. Similar allegations were made by the Canadian Prime Minister to our Prime Minister, and were completely rejected,” the external affairs ministry said in a press release.

Canada also expelled a senior Indian diplomat hours after Trudeau made the claims. Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly told Canadian media outlets that her government has expelled a senior Indian diplomat over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar, wanted in India, was shot outside a gurdwara’s parking lot in Surrey, a city in the Canadian province of British Columbia, on June 18.

Canada Expels Indian Diplomat

Canada has expelled an Indian diplomat as it was investigating what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called “credible allegations" of the involvement of “agents of the Indian government" in the killing of a Sikh extremist leader in Canada’s British Columbia province in June. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and one of India’s most-wanted terrorists who carried a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen outside a gurdwara in Surrey in the western Canadian province of British Columbia.

“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 Monday in a speech to the House of Commons.