Not trying to provoke India, but want Delhi to address issue: Trudeau on Nijjar murder

Canada is not trying to provoke India by suggesting it was linked to the urder of a Sikh separatist leader, but wants New Delhi to address the issue properly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.

Trudeau announced on Monday that Canadian intelligence agencies were actively pursuing credible allegations tying New Delhi's agents to the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, in British Columbia in June.

India quickly dismissed the assertion as absurd and said it was expelling a Canadian diplomat, further worsening already poor diplomatic relations between the two G20 members.

Trudeau told reporters that the case, which has derailed protracted talks on a potential bilateral trade deal, had far-reaching consequences in international law.

"The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate," he said.

Canadian officials have so far declined to say what evidence they have potentially linking India to Nijjar's murder.

"We wanted to make sure that we had a solid grounding in understanding what was going on ... we wanted to make sure we were taking the time to talk with our allies," Trudeau said when asked why Ottawa had revealed its hand now.

Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside Punjab, with about 770,000 people reporting Sikhism as their religion in the 2021 census.

• India rejects 'absurd' allegations that it was involved in murder of separatist in Canada