NEW DELHI: India warned Canada of “additional injury” to already strained ties after Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew a couple of purported campaign targeting Sikh activists.
Canada is residence to the biggest Sikh group exterior of India and contains activists for “Khalistan”, a fringe separatist motion searching for an impartial state for the non secular minority carved out of Indian territory.
Ottawa has beforehand accused India of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a outstanding Khalistan campaigner, and focusing on different Sikh activists linked to the motion.
Nijjar, 45, was shot lifeless by masked gunmen exterior the Sikh temple he presided over after being needed by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism offences and conspiracy to commit homicide – accusations he denied.
India has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, which have despatched diplomatic relations into freefall, with each nations final month expelling one other spherical of senior diplomats.
New Delhi has beforehand denied that Interior Minister Amit Shah had plotted to target Sikh activists on Canadian soil and formally rebuked Ottawa over what it mentioned was an “absurd and baseless” allegation.
The Globe and Mail reported on Tuesday (Nov 19) that Canadian safety businesses “imagine” Modi knew concerning the alleged marketing campaign focusing on Canadian Sikh activists.
“Such ludicrous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian authorities supply ought to be dismissed with the contempt they deserve,” India’s international ministry mentioned in an announcement late on Wednesday.
“Smear campaigns like this solely additional injury our already strained ties.”
The newspaper quoted an unnamed Canadian official as having mentioned that Indian international minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and nationwide safety advisor Ajit Doval have been “additionally within the loop”.
“The evaluation is that it will be unthinkable that three senior political figures in India wouldn’t have mentioned the focused killings with Mr Modi earlier than continuing,” the official informed the Toronto every day.
