OTTAWA (Reuters) -A large number of Canadian diplomats has left India in the last 24 hours amid a dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp said on Thursday.
New Delhi last month asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited what he said was credible evidence of a potential link between Indian government agents and the murder in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in a Vancouver suburb.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly will speak to the media about relations with India at 3:30 p.m. (1930 GMT), said spokeswoman Emily Williams, who declined to confirm the CBC report.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that India had told Canada to withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats by Oct. 10.
India has dismissed as absurd Trudeau’s suspicions that its agents were linked to the murder of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen whom New Delhi had labeled a “terrorist.”
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Ismail Shakil and Leslie Adler)
