India-Canada tensions: Shared credible allegations with India many weeks ago, says PM Trudeau
India-Canada tensions: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Ottawa had communicated allegations about the death of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar with India weeks ago.
"In regards to 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," Trudeau said while addressing a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Monday, Justin Trudeau accused India of playing a part in the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, escalating tensions between the two countries. India slammed the allegations as 'absurd' and ' motivated' on Tuesday.
According to a press release from the Ministry of External Affairs, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the same claims to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which were "completely rejected."
"We have seen and reject 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," MEA said.
"Similar allegations were made by the Canadian Prime Minister to our Prime Minister, and were completely rejected," it added.
On Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated that Canada's allegations about India's "potential links" to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar are "politically motivated."
The MEA spokesperson also stated that Canada had not shared any information on Nijjar's death.
"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."
- ANI
