Canada has expelled India’s intelligence chief in Ottawa in connection with the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Making the announcement in parliament, Foreign Minister Melanie Jolysaid the Trudeau government had taken immediate action, without providing any name of the Indian diplomat.
"The head of Indian intelligence in Canada has been expelled as a consequence. If proven true, this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other,” Joly said.
“As a consequence, we have expelled a top Indian diplomat.”
She said that the expelled Indian diplomat is the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's foreign intelligence agency, in Canada.
My statement on allegations surrounding the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. pic.twitter.com/auIyj194A8 — Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) September 19, 2023
Joly further said that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also raised the matter with US President Joe Biden.
She also said that the matter will be raised with her peers in the G7 on Monday evening in New York City ahead of the United Nations General Assembly.
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said if the allegations are true, they represent “an outrageous affront to our sovereignty”.
The latest move is expected to escalate the diplomatic stand-off with India, which is already peeved with Trudeau’s government over inaction against anti-Indiaactivities by Khalistani elements on its soil.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said that Canada’s national security advisor and the head of Canada’s spy service have travelled to India to meet their counterparts and to confront the Indian intelligence agencies with the allegations.
LeBlanc said that a homicide investigation would be initiated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Nijjar is the chief of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF)—a banned terrorist outfit—which is involved in several terror activities in India.
On June 18, he was shot dead outside a gurdwara by two unidentified assailants.
Nijjar had moved to Canada in the late 1990s and was declared a designated terrorist by India in 2020.
According to security agencies, Nijjar was actively involved in recruiting and training people for the banned terrorist outfit, KTF. He was also a part of the separatist outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), whichheld a Khalistan referendumon September 10.
The Indian government had offered a reward for information leading to Nijjar’s arrest or apprehension last year.
The reward of 1 million rupees was offered by India’s National Investigation Agency, the country’s counterterrorism body.
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