Days after India recalled its six diplomats from Canada after they were declared “persons of interest” in the investigation of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly warned over a dozen Indian diplomats, who are still in the country to respect the law.
“They’re clearly on notice,” Joly said as quoted by CBC News. “Six of them have been expelled, including the high commissioner in Ottawa. Others were mainly from Toronto and Vancouver.”
“Clearly, we won’t tolerate any diplomats that are in contravention of the Vienna Convention,” she added. Her remarks are aimed at the 15 Indian diplomats who are still in Canada.
The diplomatic row between India and Canada underwent a fresh escalation when Canada declared India’s High Commissioner and other diplomats as “persons of interest” in the investigation of Nijjar’s killing.
Following this, India decided to call back its High Commissioner and five other diplomats from Canada. India has repeatedly accused Canada of not taking action against extremist and separatist elements in the country for “vote bank politics”.
Joly’s comments come days after Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) accused the Indian government, its agents and diplomats of links to criminal activity in Canada, including coercion, extortion and killings. The charges have been strongly rejected by India, which termed it “preposterous imputations” and accused the Justin Trudeau government of indulging in “vote bank politics.”
RCMP has alleged there have been over a dozen credible and imminent threats to members of the South Asian community, particularly Sikh members of the pro-Khalistan movement. It also said it has evidence that India’s diplomats and consular officials in Canada engaged in clandestine activities, including gathering intelligence for its government, as reported by CBC News.
The Canadian Foreign Minister further stressed that the threat was real and that is the reason why the RCMP decided to announce that Canadians were being intimidated.
“There was definitely a threat and that’s exactly why the RCMP decided to take the extraordinary measure of making public the fact that Canadians were being intimidated, [were] victims of extortion or even [received] death threats because agents and diplomats from India were linked to these criminal actions,” Joly said at a press conference in Montreal.
Joly accused Russia of carrying out this kind of transnational repression in Germany and the UK. However, she noted that it has never been seen before in Canada at this scale and the government “needed to stand firm on this issue,” CBC News reported.
“We’ve never seen that in our history.” Joly further said, “That level of transnational repression cannot happen on Canadian soil.”
In a statement released on Monday, India had “strongly” rejected Canada’s suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were “persons of interest” in an investigation and termed it as “preposterous imputations” and part of the political agenda of the Justin Trudeau government.
India said Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence and his government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists “to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada”.
India also expelled six Canadian diplomats hours after it summoned Canada’s Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and conveyed that the “baseless targeting” of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable.”
