A day after Canada expelled a high-ranking Indian diplomat from the country following "credible allegations" of the Indian government's involvement in the assassination of a sikh leader, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said that the country is not trying to provoke India but wants the latter to address the issue properly.
PM Trudeau said, “The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate, we are simply laying out the facts as we understand them and we want to work with the government of India.”
“It is extremely serious, and it has far-reaching consequences in international law. We're going to remain calm. We are going to remain grounded in our democratic principles and values. We are going to follow the evidence and make sure, the work is done to a whole people,” he added.
Notably, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader in British Columbia, was fatally shot in his truck in June by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, BC. His assassination shocked and angered the sizable Sikh community in Canada, which numbers in the hundreds of thousands. India had previously designated Nijjar as a terrorist threat, associating him with a Sikh separatist movement.
Canada expelled a high-ranking Indian diplomat from the country following "credible allegations" of the Indian government's involvement in the assassination of Nijjar. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, confirmed the expulsion of the Indian diplomat and revealed that the individual in question is the head of the Indian intelligence agency in Canada. Joly emphasized that Canada is committed to uncovering the truth behind Nijjar's assassination.
Right after this move of the Canadian Government, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) termed the allegations as ‘absurd ‘and ‘motivated’. On the other hand, world leaders also expressed their ‘deep concerns’ on the accusations leveled against India.
