With India and Canada in the middle of a worsening standoff over the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday “called upon the government of India to take this matter seriously” and “work to shed full transparency and ensure accountability and justice in this matter.”
The Canadian PM, in his latest statement on Thursday evening said: “I had a direct and frank conversation, with the Prime Minister (Modi), in which I shared my concerns in no uncertain terms…We call upon the government of India to take seriously this matter and to work with us to shed full transparency and ensure accountability and justice in this matter. We are a country of the rule of law. We are going to continue to do the work necessary to keep Canadians safe and to uphold our values and the international rules-based order. That’s our focus right now.”
Stating that “we are unequivocal about the importance of rule of law,’ Justin Trudeau noted: “There is no question, India is a country of growing importance and a country that we need to continue to work with not just in a region but around the world and we are not looking to provoke or cause problems but we are unequivocal about the importance of the rule of law and unequivocal about of the importance of protecting Canadians and standing up for values. That’s why, we call upon the govt of India to work with us to establish processes to uncover the truth of the matter and to allow justice and accountability to be served.”
Earlier, Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindham Bagchi, in the latest media briefing, said that Canada has not shared any specific intel on the case yet.
He also said: “If you’re talking about reputational issues, if there’s any country that needs to look at it, I think it is Canada and its growing reputation as a place, as a safe haven for terrorists.”
“Safe haven is being provided in Canada, we want the Canadian government to not do so and take action against those who have terrorism charges or send them here to face justice…We’ve sought either extradition request or assistance related to that, at least more than 20-25 individuals we’ve requested over the years but the response has not been helpful at all.
“The issue is not about travel to India. Those who have valid visas, OCIs are free to travel to India. The issue is the incitement of violence, inaction by Canadian authorities and the creation of an environment that disrupts the functioning of our consulates which is what is making us stop temporarily the issuance of visa services. We will review this situation on a regular basis,” MEA Spokesperson said.
He added: “If you’re talking about reputational issues and reputational damage, if there’s any country that needs to look at this, I think it is Canada and its growing reputation as a place, as a safe haven for terrorists, for extremists, and for organized crime. And I think that’s a country that needs to worry about its international reputation.”
Meanwhile, Canada has released a statement saying that they are temporarily adjusting staff presence and added High Commission and all consulates in India are open and operational.
New Delhi has also stopped visa services in the North American country On Thursday.
This comes a day after India issued a strongly-worded advisory to all Indian nationals in Canada warning against “anti-India activities” and “politically-condoned hate crimes.”
The conflict first broke out earlier this week, when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged there was a “potential link” between “agents of the Government of India” and the killing of Nijjar.