Hours after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a press conference and accused India of backing criminal activities in his country, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs rejected the claims on Tuesday. “Same old Trudeau saying the same old things for the same old reasons,” they told News18.
The reaction came after Trudeau accused India of supporting criminal activities in Canada and said that New Delhi was refusing to cooperate with the investigations. Referring to the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, Trudeau also claimed he had credible evidence suggesting the involvement of Indian agents.
“The central assertion from all Canadian officials is that credible evidence has been presented to India. This was also repeated by their Cd’A to the press. This is simply not true,” the MEA sources said. “From the very beginning, the Canadian approach has been to make vague accusations and put the burden of denial on India.”
Referring to the RCMP press briefing, the sources told News18, “Assertions were made about connections of certain individuals to India. In no case, were any specifics provided. There was also talk about holding people accountable. But it was never made clear who and for what.”
The reaction came after the Canadian authorities seemed to have inadvertently admitted the presence of radical separatists on their soil. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), during a press conference on Monday, said their investigation into Najjar’s killing revealed links between Indian government “agents” and “homicides and violent acts” in Canada.
The India-Canada row erupted in September last year after Justin Trudeau’s comments regarding “credible allegation” about “agents” of the Indian government being linked to the killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, who was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Vancouver three months earlier.
Canada announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats on Monday, including the high commissioner, after the police accused agents of the Indian government of being linked to homicides, harassment and other “acts of violence” against Sikh separatists in the country.
Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly said in a statement that the decision to expel the diplomats “was made with great consideration and only after (Canadian police) gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case”.
The extraordinary step has sharply escalated diplomatic tensions between the countries, with India swiftly expelling six Canadian diplomats in response, including acting High Commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler, according to a statement from the MEA.
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