India tells Canada to withdraw over 40 diplomatic staff: Report

NEW DELHI: India has asked Canada to recall over 40 of its diplomats from India, according to a report from the Financial Times. New Delhi has set a deadline of October 10 for the repatriation, as informed by sources familiar with the matter.

Canada has 62 diplomats in India and earlier India had said that the total should be reduced by 41, the newspaper said.

Earlier, India had asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country as relations between the two countries plunged to an all-time low following Ottawa’s allegations against New Delhi over the killing of a Khalistani separatist on Canadian soil.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said the size of Canadian diplomatic staff in India is larger than what New Delhi has in Canada and that there should be a parity in strength and rank equivalence in the mutual presence.

India-Canada ties have hit rock bottom following Canadian suspicion that Indian government agents had a role in the June murder in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom India had labeled a “terrorist”.

India has dismissed the allegation as absurd. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said earlier there was a “climate of violence” and an “atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian diplomats in Canada.