Trudeau to blame for worsening ties, India says, as he admits 'no proof' in Sikh murder case

New Delhi blamed Justin Trudeau on Thursday for deteriorating relations after the Canadian Prime Minister admitted there was “no hard evidentiary proof” of Indian involvement in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia.

India's External Affairs Ministry accused Mr Trudeau of making wild accusations over the killing of activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead by two men outside a Sikh temple in a suburb of Vancouver in 2023. The killing sparked a growing diplomatic rift, with the countries expelling each other’s diplomats after a Canadian announcement that Indian high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma was a “person of interest” in the case.

Mr Nijjar had led the Khalistan Tiger Force, a group that wants the creation of a Sikh homeland called Khalistan in the Punjab region. He was designated a terrorist by Indian authorities in 2020. Mr Trudeau last year told the Canadian Parliament that Indian agents were involved in the killing but on Wednesday he admitted during a public inquiry that there was “no hard evidentiary proof”.

"I was briefed on the fact that there was intelligence from Canada, and possibly from Five Eyes allies, that made it fairly clear, incredibly clear, that India was involved in this ... agents of the government of India were involved in the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil," Mr Trudeau said of his initial view.

The Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing alliance between the US, Australia, Canada, Britain and New Zealand. New Delhi has repeatedly claimed the Canadian government has not presented any evidence to support its claim over the fatal shooting.

“What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along – Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” Randhir Jaiswal, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

“The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone."

India expelled six Canadian diplomats and recalled its envoy from Ottawa on Tuesday after Mr Trudeau’s government alleged Mr Verma was a “person of interest”. New Delhi described the allegations as “ludicrous ... preposterous imputations” and said they were part of “the political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centred around vote-bank politics”.

Mr Nijjar was born in Punjab’s Jalandhar district. He moved to Canada in 1997 and was president of the local Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia from 2020. India designated him one of its most-wanted terrorists and offered a cash reward of about $12,000 for his arrest. Mr Nijjar was accused of conspiring to kill a Hindu priest in his hometown in India. His death was initially assumed to be a result of gang rivalry but Mr Trudeau later told Parliament there were “potential links” between agents of the Indian government and the killing.

Other diplomatic reprisals in the row have included New Delhi temporarily suspending visa applications for Canadian citizens and issuing an advisory for Indians living in Canada to exercise “utmost caution”. Tension surged in May when Canadian police arrested three Indian citizens in connection with the alleged murder.

India has accused secessionist organisations and leaders living abroad – especially in Canada, Australia and Britain – of supporting the Khalistan movement, a decades-old Sikh push for an independent homeland for the religious minority in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Canada has the largest overseas community of Indian origin, with a population of 1.4 million. It also has the highest number of Sikhs outside Punjab, with about 770,000.