Canada’s investigation into alleged Indian involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist in Vancouver last year is a “political compulsion”, New Delhi’s foreign minister said after three Indian citizens were arrested over the killing.
Canadian police on Friday arrested the trio for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, saying they were investigating their links to the Indian government, “if any”.
The killing sent diplomatic relations between Ottawa and New Delhi into a tailspin last autumn after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to the crime.
India vehemently rejected the allegations and deemed them “absurd”, halting the processing of visas and forcing Canada to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country significantly.
“It is their political compulsion in Canada to blame India,” The Press Trust of India news agency quoted external affairs minister S Jaishankar as saying on Saturday.
New Delhi has sought to persuade Ottawa not to grant Sikh separatists visas or political legitimacy, Jaishankar said, since they are “causing problems for them (Canada), for us and also for our relationship”.
He added that Canada does not “share any evidence with us in certain cases, police agencies also do not cooperate with us”.
