Canada accused the Indian government
on Monday of homicide and extortion intended to silence critics of India living
in Canada, escalating a bitter dispute that began last year with an
assassination of a Sikh activist.
Canada expelled India’s top diplomat
and five others, saying they were part of a vast criminal network. India
reciprocated, expelling six Canadian diplomats.
The two countries have been in an
intense dispute following the assassination in Canada of a prominent Sikh
cleric, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
said at the time that his killing had been orchestrated by the Indian
government.
Canada is home to the largest Sikh
community outside India, where the religious minority lives mostly in the
northwestern state of Punjab. The Indian government says that some Sikhs in
Canada are actively involved in a secessionist movement that seeks to carve a
Sikh homeland known as Khalistan out of India.
Canadian officials said their
investigation had focused on the Indian government’s involvement in a campaign
aimed at Canadian Sikh activists.
The breakdown in the relationship
between the two countries has gone all the way to the top. Mr. Trudeau said on
Monday that he had confronted his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, about the
investigation last week in Laos, where both men were attending a summit.
The Canadian leader said he had asked
Mr. Modi for India’s cooperation ahead of a meeting between national security
officials from both countries in Singapore. The officials were to discuss the
involvement of Indian diplomats in what the authorities have described as
serious criminal activities against Sikhs in Canada.
“I impressed upon him that it needed
to be taken very, very seriously,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa at a
news conference.
Despite the one-on-one discussion between the leaders, the Singapore meeting did not produce the cooperation Canadian officials had sought, leading to the diplomatic expulsions.
“We will never tolerate the
involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens
on Canadian soil, a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and
of international law,” Mr. Trudeau said.
Mélanie Joly,
Canada’s foreign minister, said that her country had issued the expulsion
orders to the six diplomats after the Indian government refused to waive their
diplomatic immunity and allow them to participate in the Canadian
investigations. Among those kicked out was Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s high
commissioner, or ambassador, to Canada.
Ms. Joly said that Canada’s law
enforcement agencies had identified the six as “persons of interest” in the
Nijjar assassination. “The decision to expel these individuals was made with
great consideration,’’ she said, adding that investigators had “gathered ample,
clear and concrete evidence.’’
Mr. Nijjar was ambushed and killed by
three masked men outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. Three
Indian nationals have been arrested and charged to date.
The Indian government, in its own
statement on Monday, rejected Canada’s account of what had happened to its
diplomats. India said it had pulled them out of Canada because of “an
atmosphere of extremism and violence” that put them in danger.
The Indian government also said it was
expelling six Canadian diplomats from India, including the embassy’s
second-highest ranking diplomat, the chargé d’affaires,
Stewart Wheeler.
The Indian government has vehemently
denied accusations that it was involved in Mr. Nijjar’s killing, and maintains
that the allegations against it are politically motivated. It says Mr. Trudeau
is in cahoots with Sikh separatists in Canada because they support his Liberal
Party.
A top Canadian law enforcement
official, Mike Duheme, on Monday presented the accusations against the Indian
government, saying that it had set up a criminal network inside Canada to
harass and intimidate Sikhs. He provided few specifics about the allegations,
but said the investigation had been aided by the F.B.I.
“An extraordinary situation is
compelling us to speak about what we have discovered in our multiple ongoing
investigations into the involvement of agents of the government of India in
serious criminal activity in Canada,” said Mr. Duheme, who is the head of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
He said that the police were taking
the unusual step of going public because of a “significant threat to public
safety in our country.”
Mr. Duheme said his officers had
investigated and charged “a significant number of individuals for their direct
involvement in homicides, extortions and other criminal acts of violence.”
He said there had been more than a
dozen credible threats to life against members of the Sikh community in Canada.
The Indian government agents, including the six diplomats expelled, were based
not just in Ottawa, the capital, but also in Vancouver and Toronto and other
cities across Canada where Sikhs live.
While Mr. Duheme did not detail the means the Canadian authorities had used to collect evidence against the Indian government and its agents, he said that the investigations had found that it was running a major intelligence-gathering network in Canada. Some of those involved in the network were paid, he said, while others were coerced into helping.
“The information collected by the
government of India is then used to target members of the South Asian
community,” Mr. Duheme said.
India’s intelligence services have
long been accused of directing the killings of opponents inside neighboring
countries.
Canada’s accusations against India
regarding the Nijjar assassination of have been bolstered by the
findings of an American investigation into a similar, though unsuccessful, plot
against a U.S.-based Sikh cleric. Last November, federal prosecutors in
Manhattan said they had found connections between both plots.
The deepening rift between India and
Canada comes as the United States, the European Union and other Canadian allies
have been trying to court India as a counterweight to China. India is a booming
power on the world stage both in terms of defense and in trade and the economy.
Mr. Trudeau said that he had informed
his country’s closest intelligence allies about the developments. Together with
Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand make up the
so-called Five Eyes intelligence cooperation group.
The accusations against India arise as
a Canadian commission is investigating the interference of foreign powers into
domestic politics. A Canadian parliamentary report in June, based on
information provided by the country’s intelligence services, identified China
and India as the two countries that pose the biggest risk of foreign
interference.
Mr. Kumar Verma, India’s ambassador to
Canada, dismissed the report as politically motivated, and his government on
Monday expressed its full support for him. “The aspersions cast on him by the
government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt,” it
said.