How a Sikh leader's murder in Canada led to a diplomatic crisis with India

India and Canada have expelled each other's diplomats over the 2023 murder of Sikh activist and naturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was fatally shot in his pickup truck in British Columbia. Canada identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the case, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying that India had made a "fundamental error" by supporting criminal activity "against Canadians here on Canadian soil".

Relations between India and Canada are at a low point as the countries expelled each other's top diplomats over an ongoing dispute about the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada.

Canada said it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in an assassination plot and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday. India has rejected the accusations as absurd, and its foreign ministry said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response.

It’s the latest in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, which is banned in India.

Canada expelled an Indian diplomat over the dispute last year, and in response India expelled a Canadian diplomat and froze consular services for Canadians for nearly two months.


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