By AIJAZ HUSSAIN, SHEIKH SAALIQ and ROB GILLIES, Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — Canada and India each expelled six diplomats Monday amid a growing dispute over the June 2023 killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada was expelling six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner, after police uncovered evidence of a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by Indian government agents.

Shortly after, India’s foreign ministry announced it was expelling six Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner and deputy high commissioner. It said in a statement that the diplomats had been asked to leave India by the end of Saturday.

The ministry had said earlier Monday that India was withdrawing its diplomats, after rejecting Canada’s diplomatic communication on Sunday that the Indian ambassador was a “person of interest” in the assassination.

A senior Canadian official said Canada first expelled Indian diplomats before they withdrew. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Joly said in a statement that police had collected information linking criminal investigations to Indian government agents. Joly said India had been asked to lift diplomatic and consular immunities and cooperate with the investigation.

“Unfortunately, as India did not agree and given ongoing public safety concerns for Canadians, Canada served deportation notices to these individuals. Following these notices, India announced that it would withdraw its officials,” Joly said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year that there were credible allegations that the Indian government had links to the June 2023 assassination in Canada of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme said police have evidence linking Indian government agents to homicides and other violence in Canada. He declined to provide details.

“The team learned a significant amount of information about the scale and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the Indian government and the resulting threats to the safety and security of Canadians and people living in Canada ” said Duheme.

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin described this situation as extremely worrying.

“Indian diplomats and consular officers must protect the interests of their nationals based in Canada and their national interest and not engage in criminal activities or intimidation. So we take this very seriously. This is undoubtedly a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Gauvin said.

India has rejected the accusation as absurd.

Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his van in June 2023 after leaving the Sikh temple he led in the British Columbia city of Surrey. A Canadian citizen of Indian origin, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.

India designated him a terrorist in 2020 and, at the time of his death, was seeking his arrest for his alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest.

In response to the allegations, India last year asked Canada to send back 41 of its 62 diplomats to the country. Since then, relations between the two countries have been frosty.

The pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence, movement is a thorny issue between India and Canada. New Delhi has repeatedly criticized the Trudeau government for its laxity towards supporters of the Khalistan movement who reside in Canada. The Khalistan movement is banned in India, but benefits from the support of the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.

India has asked countries like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom to take legal action against Sikh activists. India has particularly raised its concerns in Canada, where Sikhs make up nearly 2% of the country’s population.

India’s foreign ministry said Monday that “India reserves the right to take further action in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India.”

The department also summoned Canada’s top diplomat to New Delhi and told him that “baseless targeting” of the Indian high commissioner or ambassador and other diplomats and officials in Canada “was completely unacceptable.”

“We have no confidence in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensuring their security,” he said.

Stewart Wheeler, the Canadian diplomat who was ordered to leave India, told reporters after being summoned that his government had shared “incredible and irrefutable evidence of links between Indian government agents and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.”

Wheeler said India must investigate the allegations and that Canada “stands ready to cooperate with India.”

Separately, the US State Department said in a statement on Monday that an Indian commission of inquiry set up to investigate a plot to assassinate another prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York would visit Washington Tuesday as part of its ongoing investigations to discuss the matter. .

“In addition, India informed the United States that it was continuing its efforts to investigate other links between the former government employee and would determine necessary follow-up actions,” the statement said.

Last year, U.S. prosecutors said an Indian government official led the plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil and announced charges against a man they said was part of the foiled plot.

The Indian government official was neither charged nor identified by name, but was described as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security and intelligence management, who was previously believed to have served in the central police force reserve of India.

New Delhi had then expressed concern after the United States raised the issue and said India was taking it seriously.

Rob Gillies reported from Toronto and Aijaz Hussain from Srinagar, India.