A senior Canadian diplomat has been asked to leave India within a week, the foreign ministry of India said, a few hours after Canada expelled an Indian diplomat in an accelerating rift over the killing of a Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, earlier this year.
In a statement on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said that the decision of New Delhi echoed its “increasing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal affairs and their involvement in anti-India activities.”
The dueling removals come as ties between Canada and India are worried. Trade discussions have been derailed and Canada just postponed a trade mission to India that was scheduled later this year.
Protests by pro-Sikh independence groups in Canada have enraged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
On Monday, Canada said it was “actively pursuing credible allegations” relating Indian government agents to the killing of the Sikh separatist in British Columbia in June.
Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, had told an emergency parliament session that his government had “credible allegations” relating Indian agents to the killing of an ousted Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia.
India dismissed the accusation of Canada as “absurd and motivated” and suggested it instead to take legal action against anti-Indian elements working from its land.
