India has accused Canada of indulging in harassment and intimidation of its consular personnel after Ottawa placed officials on audio and visual surveillance amid an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries.
The Indian foreign ministry said it summoned the Canadian high commission representative and lodged a strong protest over Ottawa’s allegation against minister for home affairs Amit Shah, prime minister Narendra Modi’s chief lieutenant
“Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.
Relations between India and Canada have suffered since Ottawa accused the Indian high commissioner and other top diplomats of being directly involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Mr Nijjar, 45, a Canadian Sikh who was wanted in India, was shot dead by masked gunmen in Surrey outside Vancouver in June last year. He was the face of the Khalistan movement, which seeks to carve out an independent Sikh homeland in western India.
New Delhi had long accused Mr Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, of being involved in terrorism, an allegation he denied.
It comes as Canadian deputy foreign minister David Morrison reiterated that Mr Shah sanctioned a wave of violence targeting Sikh separatists across the North American country.
On Tuesday, Mr Morrison confirmed he was the source of the The Washington Post story which first named Mr Shah as the “senior official in India” who “authorised the intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists” in Canada. The story did not name the source of the report when it was published last month.
Mr Jaiswal said the Canadian government “deliberately leaked unfounded insinuations to international media to discredit India and influence other nations”.
He said the foreign ministry delivered a strong note of protest to firmly condemn the baseless allegations made against Mr Shah.
The foreign ministry said that some consular officials in Ottawa said they were recently informed by the Canadian government that “they had been and continue to be under audio and video surveillance”.
“Their communications have also been intercepted. We have formally protested to the Canadian government as we deem these actions to be a flagrant violation of relevant diplomatic and consular conventions,” he said.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau went public with the allegations against Indian officials last year, sparking a diplomatic fallout between the two countries.
Bilateral ties hit a nadir last month when Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, accusing them of involvement in the killing. New Delhi, in a tit-for-tat move, expelled six Canadian diplomats.
