New Delhi blamed Justin Trudeau on Thursday for deteriorating relations after the Canadian prime minister admitted there was “no hard evidence” of Indian involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia .

India’s Foreign Ministry has accused Mr Trudeau of making wild accusations over the murder of activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead by two men outside a Sikh temple in a Vancouver suburb in 2023. The killing sparked a diplomatic rift growing between the two countries. expel others’ diplomats after 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 seeks the creation of a Sikh homeland called Khalistan in the Punjab region. He was designated a terrorist by Indian authorities in 2020. Mr. Trudeau told Canadian Parliament last year that Indian agents were involved in the killing, but he admitted at a public inquiry on Wednesday that he did not there was “no tangible evidence”.

“I was informed that there was intelligence from Canada, and perhaps from Five Eyes allies, that showed quite clearly, incredibly clearly, that India was involved in this… agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of a Canadian on Canadian soil,” Mr. Trudeau said of his initial view.

The Five Eyes are an intelligence-sharing alliance between the United States, Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand. New Delhi has repeatedly asserted that the Canadian government has presented no evidence to support its claims about the fatal shooting.

“What we heard today only confirms what we have said all along: Canada has not presented us with any evidence to support the serious allegations it has chosen to make against India and Indian diplomats,” said Randhir Jaiswal of the Ministry of External Affairs. spokesperson, said in a statement.

“Responsibility for the damage this cavalier behavior has caused to India-Canada relations rests solely with Prime Minister Trudeau. »

India expelled six Canadian diplomats and recalled its envoy from Ottawa on Tuesday after Mr. Trudeau’s government said Mr. Verma was a “person of interest.” New Delhi called the allegations “ridiculous…absurd imputations” and said they were part of the Trudeau government’s “political agenda that is centered on vote bank politics.”

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

Other diplomatic retaliations include New Delhi temporarily suspending visa applications for Canadian citizens and sending a notice to Indians living in Canada urging them to exercise “utmost caution.” Tensions rose in May when Canadian police arrested three Indian citizens in connection with the alleged murder.

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