India, Canada Expel Diplomats In Tit-For-Tat Move Amid Deepening Rift

India has asked Canadian diplomats in New Delhi to leave the country by Saturday after Ottawa said it was investigating its Indian ambassador and other diplomats as “persons of interest”, after the killing last year of a Sikh separatist leader. 

The decision comes hours after the government decided to withdraw its high commissioner and other “targeted diplomats and officials” from Canada.

“The Government of India has decided to expel the following 6 Canadian Diplomats: Mr. Stewart Ross Wheeler, Acting High Commissioner; Mr. Patrick Hebert, Deputy High Commissioner; Ms. Marie Catherine Joly, First Secretary; Mr. lan Ross David Trites, First Secretary; Mr. Adam James Chuipka, First Secretary; Ms. Paula Orjuela, First Secretary. They have been asked to leave India by or before 11:59 PM on Saturday, October 19, 2024,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press statement.

Withdrawing its own diplomats, New Delhi stated it has “no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security” after strongly dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to an investigation into the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a major downturn in already frosty ties between the two nations.

New Delhi said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that accusations against him were “ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt”.

Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India. He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. 

The relations between India and Canada came under severe strain following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

Nijjar was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia, in June last year. New Delhi had rejected Trudeau’s charges as “absurd”.