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India-Canada row: After Justin Trudeau admitted that he did not have any hard evidence to back his claims against India over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, India retorted by saying the Canadian PM is alone responsible for denting Ottawa’s ties with New Delhi
Justin Trudeau testifies before the Commission of Inquiry in Canada in a probe over foreign interefence in elections. (Credit: AP/PTI)
New Delhi: In a scathing attack, India on Thursday asserted that they were right all along about Canada not having any concrete evidence to support Justin Trudeau’s claims of the Indian government’s involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar after the Canadian prime minister testified in an inquiry, accepting he only had intelligence and no “hard evidentiary proof”.
Trudeau testified before the Commission of Inquiry late Wednesday, acknowledging that his claims against the Indian government and its diplomats over the killing of Khalistan terrorist Nijjar last year were based on “only intelligence” and there was no “hard evidentiary proof”.
#WATCH | “…Their (India) asks of us was, well, how much do you know? Give us the evidence you have on this. Our response was, well, it’s within your security agencies, you should be looking into how much they know… At that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard… pic.twitter.com/WpDcHIDVSi
— ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2024
Reacting to the test development, the Ministry of External Affairs said it only confirms what India has been reiterating all along that Canada has not presented any evidence to support its prime minister’s claims.
“What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along — Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement early Thursday.
‘Trudeau alone responsible for damaging India-Canada ties’
Further hitting out at Trudeau, the MEA said “The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone”.
During his testimony before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions, Trudeau alleged that Indian diplomats were gathering information on Canadians critical of the Narendra Modi government and passing it to top officials in India as well as to criminal organizations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Trudeau’s allegations and Nijjar killing
India firmly denied the Canadian authorities’ attempts to link Indian agents with criminal gangs in Canada. Official sources in New Delhi also refuted Ottawa’s claim that it had shared evidence with India regarding the Nijjar case, calling the assertion false.
New Delhi has also rejected Trudeau’s earlier claims that India was involved in activities, including executing covert operations targeting Canadian nationals in his country.
On Monday, India expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced the withdrawal of its high commissioner from Canada, following Ottawa’s accusations linking the envoy to the investigation into Nijjar’s killing.
This escalation marks a significant downturn in the already strained relations between the two countries. Tensions rose sharply after Trudeau’s allegations in September of Indian agents’ “potential” involvement in Nijjar’s murder. New Delhi rejected these accusations as “absurd.”
India has consistently argued that the core issue between the two nations is Canada’s tolerance of pro-Khalistan elements operating freely from Canadian soil. Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 of last year.
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