India rejects Canada's allegations over killing of Sikh leader as 'absurd'

India was quick to respond to Ottawa expelling an Indian diplomat amid allegations that New Delhi was involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh leader on Canadian soil, responding in kind with an expulsion of their own. 

Indian officials, calling the allegations "absurd" and "unsubstantiated," summoned Canada's High Commissioner to India to inform him that an unnamed senior Canadian diplomat has been kicked out of India and given five days to leave the country. 

The tit-for-tat response, on the heels of Ottawa expelling Indian diplomat Pavan Kumar Rai, was accompanied by a strongly-worded statement accusing Canada of interfering in India's internal affairs. 

In a separate statement, Narendra Modi's government said the allegations were politically motivated and repeated a long-standing criticism: that Canadian officials aren't concerned by the actions of "Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India's sovereignty and territorial integrity." 

Canada is home to the largest Sikh diaspora community. 

Tensions between Canada and India have grown increasingly frosty in recent months, following the June shooting death of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar and after several informal referendum votes held by the U.S.-based group Sikhs for Justice on whether a separate Sikh state called Khalistan should be formed. 

Nijjar was a wanted man in India, designated as a terrorist in 2020. 

"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," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday in a speech to the House of Commons.

While the allegations may have brought about a rare moment of unity among Ottawa's political parties, with all leaders condemning the killing and calling for answers about the intelligence that national security advisors have deemed "credible," it did the same in India, but with the opposite view — that the allegations are motivated more by domestic political concerns. 

India's main opposition Congress Party echoed the Modi government's stance, saying on X, formerly known as Twitter, that India's "fight against terrorism has to be uncompromising."

The allegations and deepening diplomatic row between India and Canada brought heightened security outside Canada's High Commission in New Delhi, with more police officers deployed to protect the building. 

New Delhi-based geopolitical analyst Brahma Chellaney called Trudeau's allegations "astounding."

The professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research noted that this is the first time India has been accused of "carrying out an assassination on Western soil, even though India has been the victim of a host of major terrorist attacks, including one that originated in Canada."   

"Canadian security agencies have yet to find evidence of any Indian involvement in the killing [of Nijjar]," said Chellaney, who is a former member of India's National Security Advisory Board.