India asks Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomat

New Delhi : Amid growing tension between India and Canada after Trudeau's statements favouring Khalistani supporters and India's alleged claim of Canada becoming the safe havens for terrorists, a new development suggests that the tricolour nation has asked the latter to withdraw its dozens of diplomats.

According to a media report, nearly 40 diplomats have been asked to move out by October 10. However, there is no official statement so far from the Indian government on this matter.

The diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Ottawa reached their lowest ebb when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently made allegations suggesting that the Indian government might be linked to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India. Nijjar was fatally shot in a parking lot outside a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on June 18.

During a Canadian Parliament debate, Trudeau asserted that Canada's national security officials had grounds to suspect that "agents of the Indian government" were involved in Nijjar's killing. Nijjar had also served as the president of Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

India has outredly rejected these claims and termed them as 'absurd'. On the other hand, Canada is yet to produce any concrete evidence against the claims in public domain.