NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India on Monday ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats and recalled its own envoy from Canada, in response to what it sees as Ottawa’s decision to designate him and others, as “persons of interest” in an investigation.

India has not given details of the investigation, but relations have been strained since 2023, when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had evidence linking Indian agents to the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on its territory.

India has long denied Trudeau’s accusations. On Monday, he rejected Canada’s decision on the investigation and accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda.”

“We have no confidence in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensuring their security. Therefore, the Indian government has decided to withdraw the high commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” the Indian Ministry of Affairs said foreigners in a press release.

He later said he had asked the six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday.

He also said he had summoned Canadian charge d’affaires Stewart Wheeler to protest.

The Canadian government has not publicly confirmed that it has named an Indian official as a person of interest.

Wheeler reiterated Trudeau’s accusation on Monday, saying in a statement: “Canada has provided credible and irrefutable evidence of links between Indian government agents and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.”

“Now it is time for India to live up to what it promised to do and look into these allegations.”

India has repeatedly said Canada has not provided any evidence to support its claims.

“This latest step follows interactions that have again resulted in assertions without any facts. This leaves no doubt that, under the pretext of investigation, there is a deliberate strategy to defame India to political purposes,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Canada withdrew more than 40 diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence.

In June, a committee of Canadian parliamentarians named India and China as the top foreign threats to its democratic institutions, based on feedback from intelligence agencies.

The United States also alleged that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination of another Sikh separatist leader in New York in 2023, and said it had charged an Indian national working at the behest of an unnamed official of the Indian government.

India expressed concern after the United States raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot and launching an investigation.

Accusations of assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the United States have tested their relations with India as they seek to forge deeper ties with that country to counter the influence China’s growing global market.

(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik and Sakshi Dayal; editing by Sudipto Ganguly, Christian Schmollinger, Ed Osmond and Andrew Heavens)