India has asked Canada to repatriate 41 of its 62 diplomats posted in the country, an official familiar with the matter revealed Tuesday, escalating the confrontation between the two countries following Canadian accusations that the India may be involved in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in a Vancouver suburb.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the Canadian government’s public response later Tuesday. He confirmed an earlier report from the Financial Times.
Two weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh leader who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver. For years, India has claimed that Mr. Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, has links to terrorism, which Mr. Nijjar denied.
Organizing the assassination of a Canadian citizen in Canada, where nearly two million people of Indian origin live, would be unprecedented.
India has for years criticized Canada for giving free rein to Sikh separatists, including Mr. Nijjar.
India has also canceled visas for Canadians. Canada has not taken retaliatory measures. India also expelled a high-ranking Canadian diplomat after Canada expelled a high-ranking Indian diplomat.
India’s latest expulsions have worsened tensions between the two countries. Mr. Trudeau had frosty relations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at this month’s Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi, and days later Canada canceled a trade mission to India scheduled for fall.
Mr. Nijjar, a plumber, was also one of the leaders of what remains of a once-powerful movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. A bloody Sikh insurgency rocked northern India for a decade in the 1970s and 1980s, until it was crushed by a government crackdown in which thousands were killed, including d Prominent Sikh leaders.
The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power, but it still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the large Sikh diaspora abroad. Although the active insurgency ended several years ago, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists are attempting to make a comeback.