Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
21 September 2023 | 21:49 CAT

Image: Independent Press

A senior Canadian diplomat has been ordered to leave India within five days, the Indian foreign ministry said, hours after Ottawa expelled an Indian diplomat in an escalating rift over the killing of a Sikh separatist earlier this year.

The tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was investigating “credible allegations” linking India to the June killing of Canadian citizen and prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar was a prominent Sikh leader in western Canada, and according to local police, he was gunned down in his truck in June by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.

India on Tuesday said it rejected Trudeau’s allegations, calling them “absurd and motivated.”

“The concerned diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days,” it said in a statement. “The decision reflects Government of India’s growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities.”

“We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law,” a statement released by the country’s foreign ministry said.

Editor of the Hardnews magazine, Sanjay Kapoor, told Radio Islam International the readout between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Trudeau showed that Modi was harsh with Trudeau.

“Modi told Trudeau that he should not give any kind of space to radical elements and he should strain this ideology,” Kapoor said.

He added, “India is very touchy about the growing radicalism in the sick communities of the minority which is barely 1.8 percent of India’s population.”

Canadian police have not arrested anyone in connection with Nijjar’s murder. But in an August update, police released a statement saying they were investigating three suspects and issued a description of a possible getaway vehicle, asking for the public’s help.

Listen to the full interview with Mufti Yusuf Moosagie on Your World Today.