India withdraws high commissioner to Canada amid escalating diplomatic row

India to withdraw its high commissioner to Canada and ‘other targeted diplomats and officials, the ministry of external affairs said on Monday.

“The Canadian Charge d’Affaires was summoned by Secretary (East) this evening. He was informed that the baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable,” the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.

“It was underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered their safety. We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” the MEA statement added.

“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 ministry said.

Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheelers told reporters,”Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.”

“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into all those allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and the people of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India,” ANI quoted the Canadian diplomat as saying.

The tensions between India and Canada escalated after Ottawa’s move to include the Indian high commissioner as ‘person of interest’ in its probe into the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year.

India’s stern response to Canada

In its statement earlier in the day, the MEA had said,”We have received a diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country. ”

“The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centered around vote bank politics,” the MEA had said.