The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that India has told Canada that it must repatriate 41 diplomats by October 10.
Relations between Canada and India have become extremely strained over Canadian suspicion that the government of India agents had a significant role in the June murder in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom India had labeled a “terrorist”.
New Delhi has dismissed the allegation as absurd.
The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the Indian demand, said
India had threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of those diplomats told to depart who remained after October 10.
The newspaper said that Canada has 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi had said that the total should be reduced by 41.
The foreign ministries of Canada and India did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the foreign minister of India, said earlier there was a “climate of violence” and an “atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian diplomats in Canada, where the presence of Sikh separatist groups has frustrated New Delhi.
