• Source:JND
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In the midst of ongoing tensions between India and Canada, foreign nation Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said that Ottawa had shared allegations regarding the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar with India weeks ago. Speaking on the high-stakes issue, Trudeau said, "Regarding India, Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday. With India, we did that many weeks ago. We are there to work constructively with India and we hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter."

On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington is "deeply concerned" about the allegations and wants to see accountability. He said that the US has engaged directly with the Indian government and called it "important" that the investigation runs its course and leads to the result.

"We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised. We have been consulting throughout very closely with our Canadian colleagues, and not just consulting, coordinating with them on this issue."

The de-escalation of India-Canada ties took pace when, Justin Trudeau alleged India's role behind the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which was followed by India marking those allegations as ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated'. India said that Canadian PM Justin Trudeau had made similar allegations to PM Narendra Modi and they were "completely rejected."

"We have seen and rejected the statement of the Canadian Prime Minister in their Parliament, as well as the statement by their Foreign Minister. Allegations of the Government of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated," the Ministry of External Affairs stated in the statement. It further said, "Similar allegations were made by the Canadian Prime Minister to our Prime Minister, and were completely rejected."

The tensions further flared up as both nations expelled a senior diplomat, India in a reciprocal move to Canada.

India further said that the allegations made by Canada regarding the "potential links" of India behind the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar are “politically driven”.

"Yes, I do think there is a degree of prejudice here. They have made allegations and taken action against them. To us, it seems that these allegations by the government of Canada are primarily politically driven," the MEA said. It said no information has been shared by Canada regarding the killing of Nijjar.

"We are willing to look at any specific information that is provided to us, but so far we have received no specific information from Canada," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday answering queries.

When Trudeau was asked about the nature of the allegations, Trudeau had failed to present any evidence to back Canadian claims. He was stuck to reiterating that there were "credible reasons" to believe that India was linked to the death of Nijjar.

"There are credible reasons to believe that agents of the Government of India were involved in the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil. That is ...there is something of utmost foundational importance in a country's rule of law in a world where international rules-based order matters" said Trudeau.

"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" he added.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) — a Sikh extremist organisation banned by India — and a “designated terrorist” was gunned down in Canada's Surrey in June.