India on Monday decided to withdraw its High Commissioner from Canada expressing lack of faith in Ottawa’s commitment to ensure his security amid an escalation in the diplomatic row between the two countries over the probe into the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also announced it was withdrawing “other targeted diplomats and officials”.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” the government said, conveying the decision to the Canadian Charge d’Affaires who was summoned by the MEA this evening.
“It was underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the (Justin) Trudeau Government’s actions endangered their safety. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” MEA said in a statement.
The Ministry said, “It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India”.
The development came after the Indian government criticised Canada for investigating the Indian ambassador and other diplomats as “persons of interest” over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The MEA said India received a “diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday naming the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats as ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country”.
Nijjar, the mastermind behind the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), was shot dead in June last year by masked gunmen in a suburb of Vancouver in Western Canada.
