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The Indian government denied Thursday that it was working with gangsters to attack Sikh separatists in Canada, as publicly alleged this week by Canadian officials in an escalating diplomatic dispute.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal denied that India was in cahoots with India-based gangsters in Canada and even suggested that Canadian authorities had resisted India’s efforts to extradite those people to India .
“It is strange that people we have asked to be deported are being blamed by Canadians for committing crimes in Canada,” Jaiswal said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and police officials went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats targeted Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home. They said top Indian officials then passed that information on to Indian organized crime groups that targeted the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.
Canada has deported six high-level Indian diplomats after the RCMP said it had evidence that Indian diplomats in Canada were involved in a campaign to intimidate, coerce and sometimes even kill on Canadian soil. Andrew Chang provides an overview of what we know about Canada’s allegations of the Indian government’s ties to organized crime and this latest diplomatic escalation between the two countries.
The two sides this week ordered the expulsion of top diplomats in the mounting crisis over the allegations, including Canada’s claim that the diplomats were linked to the June 2023 killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar’s murder has soured ties for more than a year, and despite Canada’s claim that it has forwarded evidence of his allegations to Indian authorities, the Indian government continues to deny seeing any of it.
Jaiswal said again Thursday that Canada has provided no evidence to support its allegations surrounding attacks on Sikh activists, contradicting Trudeau’s statements this week that his country’s investigators privately shared information with Indian counterparts and found them uncooperative.
At the same time, Jaiswal accused Canada of failing to take action against Sikhs living in Canada who are accused of terrorism in India and accused of being part of a secessionist Sikh campaign in India’s northern state of Punjab.
Jaiswal said India’s 26 extradition requests have been pending in Canada for a decade or more. He also said that preliminary arrest requests for several criminals were pending with Canadian authorities.
“Some of them are accused of terror and terror-related crimes (in India). So far, no action has been taken by the Canadian side on our requests. This is very serious,” Jaiswal said.
Expelling Indian diplomats “will not decimate India’s spy network,” says Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, subject of an alleged assassination attempt thwarted by the FBI.
India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of what is known as the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India but enjoys support among the Sikh diaspora, especially in Canada.
The RCMP said Monday it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country and five other diplomats as persons of interest in Nijjar’s killing. The RCMP also said they have found evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadians by agents of the Indian government.
Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck last year after leaving the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. He was an Indian-born Canadian citizen, owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.
Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial.
