Â鶹ӰÊÓ

Skip to main content

India trashes Canada for linking home minister to Sikh activist plot

India Home Minister Amit Shah pictured in Jammu, India, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024.(AP Photo/Channi Anand) India Home Minister Amit Shah pictured in Jammu, India, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024.(AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Share
NEW DELHI -

India officially protested on Saturday the Canadian government's allegation that the country's powerful home minister Amit Shah had ordered the targeting of Sikh activists inside Canada, calling it "absurd and baseless."

Relations between the two countries soured after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year there were credible allegations the Indian government had links to the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. India has vehemently rejected the accusation.

New Delhi -- long anxious about Sikh separatist groups -- has increasingly accused the Canadian government of giving free rein to separatists from a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan.

The diplomatic row led to the expulsion of each other's top diplomats last month.

"The Government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union Home Minister of India," Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman of India's foreign ministry told reporters on Saturday.

He also said a Canadian diplomat in New Delhi was summoned on Friday and handed out a letter to formally protest the allegation. "Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties," he said.

Canada's Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told Parliament members of the national security committee on Tuesday that he had confirmed Shah's name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations. Morrison did not say how Canada knew of Shah's alleged involvement.

Canadian authorities have repeatedly said they shared evidence with India whose officials deny being provided with proof, calling the allegations ridiculous.

Nijjar was a local leader of the Khalistan movement, banned in India. India designated him a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death was seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest in India. He lived in Canada, where about 2% of the population is Sikh, for nearly three decades.

IN DEPTH

Opinion

opinion

opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster

A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?

opinion

opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

The impact of Trump's lies in Springfield, Ohio

Springfield, Ohio was once a manufacturing hub. Now, people know it for Trump's comments at September's presidential debate, when he famously - and falsely - told an audience of 67 million people that Haitians eat their pets, echoing claims that had circulated on social media.

On the same day Chip Wilson erected a controversial sign at his Vancouver mansion, the city was quietly honouring the billionaire and his wife.

An Ontario woman is facing serious charges after police allege she pretended to be a registered nurse at several Simcoe County facilities, despite being unqualified.

Local Spotlight

A Vancouver man is saying goodbye to his nine-to-five and embarking on a road trip from the Canadian Arctic to Antarctica.

A Windsor teen’s social media post showing off a distinctive Windsor pizza topping has gone viral, drawing millions of views worldwide and sparking new curiosity about Windsor-style pizza.

Auston Matthews has come face to face with his look-alike. On Thursday, the Maple Leafs star met seven-year-old Grayson Joseph, who went viral for dressing up as an Auston Matthews hockey card.

A Halifax junk remover shares some of his company’s strangest discoveries.

When Leah arrived at work directing traffic around a construction site, she never expected to see a van painted in all sorts of bright colours, and covered in eclectic decorations, including a stuffed moose attached to its roof.

After 14 years of repairing and selling bicycles out of the garage of her home, a Guelph, Ont. woman’s efforts have ended – for now, at least.

Epcor says it has removed more than 20,000 goldfish from an Edmonton stormwater pond.

Witches and warlocks have been flocking to New Brunswick waterways this month, as a new Halloween tradition ripples across the province.

New Brunswicker Jillea Godin’s elaborate cosplay pieces attract thousands to her online accounts, as well as requests from celebrities for their own pieces.

Stay Connected