The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons on Monday (9/18) that, in recent weeks, national security authorities had been probing allegations that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination.
"Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty," he said. "Canada is a rule-of-law country, the protection of our citizens and defence of our sovereignty are fundamental.
"Our top priorities have therefore been one, that our law enforcement and security agencies ensure the continued safety of all Canadians. And two, that all steps be taken to hold perpetrators of this murder to account."
Trudeau said he raised the issue "in no uncertain terms" with the Indian Prime Minister, Sikhism Narendra Modi, when the two met briefly in New Delhi last week for the G20 summit.
The foreign affairs minister, Me'lanie Joly, said Canada had expelled a "key Indian diplomat" and "expects India to fully collaborate with us and ultimately to get to the bottom of this".
The diplomat expelled by Canada is the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (Raw), India's foreign intelligence agency in Canada.
"We'll hold the perpetrators accountable and bring them to justice," said the public safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc, adding the police were leading the murder investigation.
India's ministry of external affairs said in a statement it "rejected" statements by Trudeau and his foreign minister, adding that allegations of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada are "absurd and motivated".
Who was Hardeep Singh NijjarOn June 18 Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. Nijjar had campaigned for an independent Sikh nation - known as Khalistan - to be carved out of India's Punjab state. He was wanted by Indian authorities and had been designated as a "terrorist" in July 2020.
He had been warned by Canada's spy agency about threats against him, according to the World Sikh Organization of Canada, which alleged he was "assassinated in a targeted shooting".
India's Punjab state - which is about 58% Sikh and 39% Hindu - was rocked by a violent Khalistan separatist movement in the 1980s and early 1990s, in which thousands of people died. Today, that movement's most vocal advocates are primarily among the Punjabi overseas diaspora.
Canada is home to one of the largest overseas communities of Indian origin, which number approximately 1.4 million out of an overall Canadian population of 40 million. About 770,000 people reported Sikhism as their religion in the 2021 census.
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