AMN / WEB DESK
On Monday after accusing the Indian government of playing a role in the killing of a Canadian Sikh leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he isn’t trying to “provoke” the South Asian country.
“We are not looking to provoke or escalate. We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them,” Trudeau told reporters Tuesday, before a cabinet meeting.
“The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that.”
On Monday, Trudeau made an unprecedented declaration in the House of Commons, accusing agents of the Indian government of helping to kill Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C., on June 18.
“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,” Trudeau said Monday.
According to CBC News Trudeau briefed the leaders of some of Canada’s closest allies about the case, including U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden.
Increased tensions
Tensions between the two countries have become tense, and flared after Trudeau’s announcement.
On Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said she had ordered the expulsion of “a senior Indian diplomat.”
Joly’s office said that diplomat is Pavan Kumar Rai, the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, in Canada.
India rejects Canada’s allegations over killing of Sikh leader as ‘absurd’
In a tit-for-tat response, India announced it had expelled a Canadian diplomat, with five days’ notice to leave the country.
“The decision reflects the government of India’s growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities,” India’s Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement.
