By Krishn Kaushik

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that despite requests from New Delhi, Canada had taken no action against members of a gang that Canadian police accused of being linked to agents of the Indian government in the killing of a Sikh separatist in 2023. leader, this created a rift in ties.

“This is a contradiction in terms, which we do not understand,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, calling it “strange”.

He said there were 26 Indian extradition requests pending with Canada over the past decade or more, including members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and others.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had accused Indian government agents of being linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, near Vancouver. The affair is at the heart of a crumbling diplomatic relations between India and Canada.

Earlier this week, the two countries expelled six diplomats from each other’s side in a retaliatory move over Ottawa’s allegations that New Delhi was targeting Indian dissidents on Canadian soil.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that India made a “horrible mistake” in thinking it could aggressively interfere with Canada’s security and sovereignty.

India responded that Trudeau had only confirmed his position that Canada had not provided any evidence to support his allegations.

At a weekly press conference, Jaiswal said Thursday: “We have shared security-related information with the Canadian government regarding gang members, including those of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and asked them to arrest them or to take appropriate action in accordance with the law.”

He said Canada had taken no action, calling it “very serious.”

“We find this really strange,” he said, adding that the RCMP was blaming India for the crimes committed by these people “whose people we have requested to be deported, against whom we have requested action to be taken.”

Bishnoi is a 31-year-old leader of what India’s top investigative agency calls a “terrorist crime syndicate” that he runs from various prisons in India.

The group, according to India’s National Investigation Agency, has a transnational reach, including a presence in Canada.

Although India has denied all Canadian allegations, it is working with the United States, which also mentioned last year that an Indian official was involved in an unsuccessful assassination plot of another Sikh separatist leader in New York.

Jaiswal confirmed Thursday that an official named in the U.S. indictment in the case was no longer employed by the Indian government.

After meeting with members of the Indian government committee investigating the case who were visiting the United States, the State Department said Wednesday that Washington was pleased with India’s cooperation in the investigation. on the foiled assassination plot.

(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik, Writing by Krishn Kauhsik and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Sudipto Ganguly and Bernadette Baum)