'India Made A Horrific Mistake By Interfering In Canadian Sovereignty': Trudeau Amid Strained Ties

The remark came amidst the diplomatic fallout from Ottawa's latest allegations linking India's High Commissioner to a probe into the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down outside a gurdwara in Canada's Surrey last year.

At the same hearing where Trudeau accused India of blatantly violating Canada's sovereignty, Trudeau also acknowledged that his claims of 'Indian agents' being involved in Nijjar's killing was only based on intelligence and not concrete evidence when he went public with the allegations.

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He said, "... at that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof. So we said, well, let's work together and look into your security services and maybe we can get that done." On Monday, India expelled six Canadian diplomats hours after it summoned Canada's Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler.

At the same time, New Delhi withdrew its envoy to Canada along with other officials and diplomats who Ottawa named as 'persons of interest' in a matter related to an investigation in the country.

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India said the "baseless targeting" of its envoy and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable. India-Canada ties have been fraught since last year, when Trudeau said he had "credible evidence" linking Indian agents to Nijjar's killing. India has repeatedly denied the allegation.

(With inputs from agencies)