India formally rebuked Ottawa on Saturday for the “absurd and baseless” accusation, and denied that home minister Amit Shah had planned to target Sikh activists in Canada.
The largest Sikh community outside of India resides in Canada, which is also home to supporters of “Khalistan,” a fringe separatist movement that aims to carve away Indian territory into an independent state for the religious minority.
In the past, Ottawa has charged India with planning the 2023 murder in Vancouver of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a well-known Khalistan activist who was 45 years old and a naturalized Canadian citizen.
However, Canadian officials revealed last week that Ottawa has linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s influential right-hand man to a larger operation that targeted Canadian Sikh activists and reached the highest echelons of India’s government.
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for the foreign ministry, told reporters, “The Government of India objects in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless comments made to the Union Home Minister of India.”
According to Jaiswal, a Canadian diplomat has been called and given a letter formally objecting to the charge against Shah.
Deputy Foreign Ministry David Morrison corroborated a Washington Post report this week that accused Shah of being involved in a scheme to threaten and even murder Canadian Sikhs while testifying before a Canadian legislative committee.
According to an alleged senior Canadian official quoted by The Post, Shah approved a campaign of attacks and intelligence collection, which included Nijjar’s 2023 murder.
