Hours after Ottawa expelled a top Indian official following the escalation of tensions between the two countries over the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nagar earlier this year, India has expelled a senior Canadian diplomat. Expelled.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented in Parliament what he called credible allegations that India was linked to the killing of Najar in British Columbia state in June. The Indian government dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous” and asked Canada to crack down on anti-India groups operating on its soil.
The row centers around the Sikh independence movement, commonly known as the Khalistan movement. India has accused Canada of harboring Khalistani activists.
What caused the tension?
Najar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey on June 18, three years after India designated him a “terrorist.” Najar was from the northern Indian state of Punjab. He supported the demand for a Sikh homeland, the birthplace of the Sikh religion, bordering Pakistan.He was reportedly organizing an unofficial referendum for an independent Sikh nation in India at the time of his death .
Trudeau said Monday that the involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen was an “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
On Tuesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said allegations of India’s involvement in any acts of violence in Canada are “ridiculous and provocative”.
He said the “unsubstantiated allegations” sought to “distract attention from the Khalsaan terrorists and extremists who have been sheltered in Canada.”
Indian authorities last year announced a cash reward for information leading to the arrest of Najar, who was accused of involvement in an alleged attack on a Hindu priest in India.
A sign is seen outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Temple after Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nagar was assassinated on its grounds in June 2023 in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada on September 18, 2023.
Trudeau said he raised Najar’s killing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in New Delhi last week. “I told Modi that any interference by the Indian government would be unacceptable and requested his cooperation in the investigation,” he said.
How did India respond?
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs rejected the allegation that India was involved in Najar’s murder.
“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to divert attention from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been sheltered in Canada and continue to pose a threat to India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a ministry statement said. are”.
On Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said it had given a senior Canadian diplomat five days to leave the country.
“This decision reflects the Indian government’s growing concern over the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal affairs and their involvement in anti-India activities,” it said.
It was further said that the ministry had summoned Canadian High Commissioner Cameron McKay in New Delhi to apprise him of the move. Earlier, New Delhi urged Ottawa to take action against anti-India groups in Canada.
“Allegations of the Indian government’s involvement in any acts of violence in Canada are absurd,” he said, adding that similar allegations leveled by Trudeau against Modi were “completely rejected”.
Who was Hardeep Singh Najar?
Najar was born in Jalandhar district in the northern Indian state of Punjab in 1977 and moved to Canada in 1997, where he worked as a plumber, according to the Khalistan Extremism Monitor, a New Delhi-based independent institute for conflict management.
According to India’s counter-terrorism, National Investigation Agency, he was initially associated with the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Sikh separatist group. New Delhi has listed the BKI as a “terrorist organization” and says it is funded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, a charge Islamabad denies.
What is the Sikh separatist movement?
Sikhism is a minority religion that originated in northern India with roots dating back to the 15th century and has been influenced by both Hinduism and Islam.
Its adherents make up less than two percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, but Sikhs make up about 60 percent of the population of the northern state of Punjab.
India gained its independence in 1947 but immediately faced a blood-soaked partition that divided the former British colony along religious lines.
Is the movement still active?
There is no active insurgency in Punjab today, but the Khalistan movement still has a large number of supporters among Sikhs in the state and abroad.
The Indian government has repeatedly warned over the years that Sikh separatists are trying to make a comeback. Modi’s government has also stepped up its pursuit of Sikh separatists, arresting dozens of leaders of various organizations allegedly linked to the movement.
The Khalistan movement has a long history and was a violent military movement on Indian soil in the 1980s. This focus has increased significantly since the Modi government came to power in 2014. It has strong roots in both Canada and the UK, where things like referendums are held, but given that the majority of Sikhs are on Indian soil and not participating in the referendum, they can easily be ignored.
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2024-07-22 15:12:38
