Why India-Canada relations have soured

livemint.com:

Mint brings you the background of the case: Hardeep Singh Nijjar became a prominent face in the pro-Khalistan movement in Canada after moving there in 1996. He took on a key role in groups like Sikhs for Justice and founded the Khalistan Tiger Force. Earlier this year, India designated the KTF as a terrorist organization, saying it received financial and logistical support from foreign handlers to carry out terrorist activities in India.

For this reason, Indian authorities pursued Nijjar for years. In 2018, his name was on a list of wanted criminals handed to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In June, Nijjar was shot dead in Canada outside a Sikh cultural centre by gunmen.

Ever since Nijjar’s killing, his supporters have claimed that India may have had a hand in the assassination. On Monday, Trudeau told the Canadian parliament that the country’s intelligence agencies were investigating “credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar". He went on to say that Canada had made its concerns clear to the Indian government.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty," he added. After Trudeau’s statement, foreign minister Melanie Joly announced that Canada would expel an Indian diplomat, later identified as Pavan Kumar Rai. India, denying the allegations as “absurd and motivated", summoned the high commissioner in New Delhi and informed him of its decision to expel a Canadian diplomat for “involvement in anti-India activities".