NEW DELHI: India and Canada have expelled each other’s diplomats amidst escalating tensions between the two countries. This development has come amidst investigation into the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia. Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was designated as a terrorist by India in July 2020.
India expelled six Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner on Monday, hours before Canada’s foreign ministry announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats.These actions follow a series of tit-for-tat expulsions and suspended visa services.
The diplomatic tensions began in June 2023, when Nijjar was killed outside a Sikh temple in Surrey. The investigation, since then, has impacted other areas of bilateral relations. Here is a timeline of worsening diplomatic ties between the two countries:
June 18, 2023: Nijjar, 45, advocating for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland separate from India, is shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population.
September 1, 2023: A Canadian trade official announces that Canada has paused talks on a proposed trade treaty with India. The decision comes about three months after both countries indicated plans to finalise an initial agreement.
September 10, 2023: Prime Minister Narendra Modi expresses strong concerns about Sikh separatist protests in Canada to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a meeting at the G20 summit in New Delhi.
September 18, 2023: Trudeau says in Canadian parliament that Canada is ‘actively pursuing credible allegations’ linking Indian government agents to Nijjar’s assassination.
September 19, 2023: India dismisses Trudeau’s allegations as ‘absurd.’ Both countries expel a diplomat in a tit-for-tat exchange, with Canada expelling India’s top intelligence official and India expelling Canada’s senior diplomat.
September 22, 2023: India suspends the issuance of new visas for Canadian citizens and requests that Ottawa reduce its diplomatic staff in India. India resumes visa services two months later.
October 19, 2023: Canada withdraws 41 diplomats from India as tensions escalate over Nijjar’s murder.
October 29, 2023: Tens of thousands of Sikhs gather at the same gurdwara in Surrey to participate in an unofficial referendum on the creation of an independent Sikh state.
November 21, 2023: India’s anti-terror agency files a case against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist, accusing him of issuing video threats to Air India passengers, warning that their lives were at risk.
November 22, 2023: A senior US official reveals that American authorities foiled a plot to assassinate Pannun in the United States and issued a warning to India over concerns about possible involvement from the Indian government.
April 30, 2024: The White House describes a Washington Post report claiming that an officer in India’s intelligence service was directly involved in both Nijjar’s killing and the foiled assassination attempt on Pannun in the US as a ‘serious matter.’ India’s foreign ministry denounces the report as ‘unwarranted and unsubstantiated.’
May 3, 2024: Canadian police arrest and charge three Indian men with the murder of Nijjar and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.
October 14, 2024:
Canada and India expells six of each other’s diplomats, one of the most severe actions yet in an escalating dispute, after Trudeau said that their police uncovered evidence of a targeted and worsening campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.
