Canada expelled six Indian diplomats after police said they gathered evidence that the officials were part of a “campaign of violence” by the Indian government, a government source told Reuters on Monday.

The Washington Post earlier reported that the diplomats had been expelled. India on Monday recalled its envoy to Canada as well as other officials and diplomats that Ottawa had named as persons of interest in a matter linked to an investigation in the country, the Indian foreign ministry announced.

New Delhi rejected the “absurd imputations” of the Canadian claim, made in a diplomatic communication on Sunday, saying it was part of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “political agenda” centered on “vote bank politics”.

The Foreign Ministry also said it summoned the Canadian charge d’affaires on Monday and informed him that the “baseless targeting” of Indian diplomats and officials in Canada was “completely unacceptable.”

“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,” he said in a press release.

India also said it “reserves” the right to take further action in response to the Canadian government’s “support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” the statement said.

Relations between New Delhi and Ottawa have been frosty since September 2023, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was “pursuing credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian agents and the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist leader that year, sparking a strong reaction from New Delhi, which denied the 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,” he said.

“India now reserves the right to take further action in response to these latest efforts by the Canadian government to concoct allegations against Indian diplomats.”

It also alleges that the Trudeau government “knowingly provided space for violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”

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 main foreign threats to its democratic institutions, based on information provided by intelligence agencies.

India’s envoy to Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, called the report politically motivated and influenced by Sikh separatist activists.

Earlier this year, Trudeau said he hoped India would “engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter.”

Shortly after Canada’s allegation, the United States claimed 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 who was working at the behest of an anonymous Indian government official.

However, in contrast to its angry response to the Canadian allegations, India expressed concerns after the United States raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot and launching an investigation.

Assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the United States have tested relations with India, as Western countries hope to forge deeper ties with New Delhi to counter global influence growth of China.