India rejects Trudeau's allegations, says Canada has provided no evidence in Nijjar killing

India on Thursday rejected the allegations made by the Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau over India’s alleged role of Indian government agents in the 2023 killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, saying that the Canadian government has not provided any shred of information since September of 2023.

On Wednesday, Trudeau testified before the country’s foreign interference inquiry amid the escalating India-Canada diplomatic row, during which the PM acknowledged that he had no “hard evidentiary proof” and only had intelligence when Canada last year alleged the involvement of the Indian government agents in the killing of Nijjar.

Addressing the media on Thursday on the issue, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, " We have made our position very clear on this particular matter. Since, September of 2023 the Canadian government has not shared any shred of information with us. Yesterday, again, after the public inquiry, public hearing again, issued a statement saying that Canada has given serious allegations but has so far not given any evidence to back it up…as far as the allegations are concerned, PM Trudeau’s own admission, yesterday would indicate the value of these allegations. As regards our stance…we reject false imputations against our diplomats"

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#WATCH | On India-Canada Row, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, " We have made our position very clear on this particular matter. You would have seen that several press releases have been issued in the last two days putting out our position, which we are very clear, that… pic.twitter.com/7V3wOKMH60

— ANI (@ANI) October 17, 2024

“We had summoned the acting High Commissioner of Canada and thereafter conveyed that we had no faith that the Canadian government will look after the safety of our diplomats and therefore, we had taken a decision to withdraw our High Commissioner and five other diplomats along with him. Subsequent to that, we saw that there was a communication from the Canadian side asking them to leave, but we had withdrawn our diplomats before their decision,” he said.

Talking about India- Canada relations, he said that the economic ties between the two countries are very strong and vibrant. “We have large Indian diaspora in Canada which is a bridge through which we maintain strong people-to-people links with Canada. We have possibly the largest cohort of international students in Canada as well. This particular crisis has been precipitated by Trudeau government’s baseless allegations. This is how we see the relationship going forward,” he added.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also admitted Wednesday that he did not present concrete evidence to India on Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing on Canadian soil and said that he only shared intelligence before publicly accusing India of being involved in the Khalistani separatist’s assassination.

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.

The diplomatic dispute escalated when Canada designated High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and other Indian diplomats in Ottawa as “persons of interest,” accusing them of involvement in Nijjar’s killing last September.