India struck back at Canada early Tuesday after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau linked agents of India’s government to the shooting death of a Sikh leader near Vancouver.

A statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs says an unnamed senior Canadian diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said earlier on Monday that Canada was expelling India’s Pavan Kumar Rai, whom her department lists in its public registry as a diplomatic agent who heads up an Indian intelligence agency based in Ottawa.

Trudeau told the House of Commons on Monday that there is credibility to the allegations that Indian government agents played a role in the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar was killed in the parking lot of his gurdwara in Surrey, B.C. on June 18.

The Indian government rejected allegations of involvement in Nijjar’s death, calling them “absurd and motivated.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2023.

The Canadian Press