India, Canada expel each other's diplomats in tit-for-tat move

NEW DELHI, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- India on Monday asked six Canadian diplomats in New Delhi to leave the country by Saturday hours after it decided to withdraw its high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and other "targeted diplomats and officials" from Canada.

Canada has also announced expulsion of six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner.

The development came after Ottawa said the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats are "persons of interest" in a matter related to a Canadian investigation, a claim strongly rejected by New Delhi.

New Delhi and Ottawa were locked in a diplomatic row in September 2023, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian agents played a role in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader, near Vancouver in June. India outrightly denied the allegations and described them as "absurd and motivated".

The dispute was followed by the tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between the two sides.