India has rejected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claim that Ottawa has given “credible and irrefutable evidence” to New Delhi regarding the involvement of Indian agencies in the killing of ‘Khalistan’ supporter Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Highly placed sources said Canada has all along been only making “vague accusations” and putting the burden of denial on India.
On Mr Trudeau’s press conference in which he again levelled charges against India, sources said he has been saying “the same old things for the same old reasons.”
While addressing the press conference on Monday, the Canadian PM accused agents of the Indian government of engaging in “clandestine information-gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting Canadians, and involvement in threatening and violent acts.”
In this regard, Indian sources said, “The central assertion from all Canadian officials is that credible evidence has been presented to India. This was also repeated by their Charge d”affaires to the press yesterday. This is simply not true. From the very beginning, the Canadian approach has been to make vague accusations and put the burden of denial on India.”
Sources said no specifics regarding the connection of certain individuals to India were provided.
Sources said, “At the RCMP (Royal Mounted Canadian Police) press briefing, assertions were made about connections of certain individuals to India. In no case were any specifics provided. There was also a talk about holding people accountable. But it was never made clear who and for what.”
Sources termed it absurd that the Canadian government after intensively engaging the Indian High Commissioner over the last year has now chosen to target him.
Citing evidence from the RCMP, Mr Trudeau claimed that Indian government officials were involved in the activities that posed a threat to public safety.
“As the RCMP Commissioner stated earlier they have clear and compelling evidence that agents of the Government of India have engaged in and continue to engage in activities that pose a significant threat to public safety. This includes clandestine information-gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians, and involvement in a dozen threatening and violating acts, including murder. This is unacceptable,” Mr Trudeau alleged.
He further claimed that Canadian law enforcement had “made several attempts” to work with Indian counterparts on these matters but were “repeatedly refused.”
“While attempts have been made by the RCMP and national security officials to work with the Government of India, and Indian law enforcement counterparts on this matter, they have been repeatedly refused. This is why, this weekend, Canadian officials took an extraordinary step – they met with Indian officials to share RCMP evidence, which concluded six agents of the Government of India are persons of interest in criminal activities. Despite repeated requests to the Government of India, it decided not to cooperate,” he claimed.
The Canadian PM’s press conference came after India expelled six Canadian diplomats and recalled its envoy Sanjay Kumar Verma and some other diplomats, raising strong objections over the “baseless targeting” of the Indian officials in connection with the murder.
The six Canadian diplomats have been asked to leave India before 11:59 P.M. on Saturday.