New Delhi: Canadian officials have told the Indian government that “conversations and texts among Indian diplomats” ordered out of the country on Monday “include references” to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and a senior official in the Research and Analysis Wing in India “who have authorised… intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists,” in Canada, the Washington Post reported late last night.
According to the report, this information was conveyed in an unpublicised meeting between top Canadian security and foreign ministry officials and Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval in Singapore on October 12.
An earlier version of the Washington Post story did not name the minister and spoke only of the involvement of a “senior official in India”. But in a subsequent update, the newspaper identified Shah as the official concerned based on more detailed inputs from its sources.
Neither the ministries of External Affairs nor Home Affairs have responded to the Washington Post story and the Canadian charge of Shah’s involvement. But if this is true, retired Indian diplomats expressed surprise at the possibility of a cabinet minister getting involved in ‘operational matters’, that too overseas. A former chief of an intelligence agency also told The Wire that Shah’s official domain did not include engaging in the kind of actions the Canadians are suggesting he did.
Meanwhile, Trudeau has spoken of ‘clear and compelling evidence’ in the possession of the police “that agents of the Government of India have engaged in and continue to engage in activities that pose a significant threat to public safety, including clandestine information gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians, and involvement in over a dozen threatening and violent acts, including murder.”
In comments after India ejected six Canadian diplomats, including acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler and his deputy, Trudeau said he had shared information about the accusations with Five Eyes partners, particularly the United States.
These latest charges, though, represent an escalation as they allege a wider campaign of the Indian government of working, Trudeau said, with organised crime elements in Canada to “collect – through questionable and illegal means – information on Canadian citizens… (that is fed to criminal organisations) that would then take violent actions from extortion to murder”.
“I think it is obvious the Government of India made a fundamental error in thinking they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians, here on Canadian soil. Whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts, it is absolutely unacceptable,” Trudeau said, adding, “We shared our concerns with the Government of India and asked them to work with us…”. However, he claimed that these requests had been “repeatedly refused”.
“That is why… this weekend… Canadian officials took an extraordinary step. They met with Indian officials to share RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) evidence, which concluded six agents of the Government of India are ‘persons of interest’ in criminal activities. And despite repeated requests to the Government of India, they have decided not to co-operate…”
“Canada fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, and we expect India to do the same for us,” he added.
