WORLD
Indian foreign affairs ministry in a late-night statement on Wednesday (Oct 16) blasted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he acknowledged that he had only "intelligence-based speculation" and no "hard evidentiary proof" against India over the death of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Calling out Trudeau’s "cavalier attitude", India’s Ministry for External Affairs said, “What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along — Canada has presented us (India) no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats." Also read: ‘Time for him to go,’ Second Liberal MP denounces Canada PM Trudeau’s leadership New Delhi also held Trudeau responsible for severed diplomatic ties between the two nations. Following Trudeau’s allegations, India withdrew its top six diplomats from Ottawa and expelled the same number of Canadian diplomats from New Delhi. "The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone," the statement said. Earlier on Wednesday, while testifying before the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions in Ottawa, Trudeau had admitted that his government did not have hard evidence against India. He appeared before the committee after the latest charge that Indian diplomats were involved in collecting information and using criminal gangs to target members of the pro-Khalistan movement in Canada. Also read: Justin Trudeau admits Canada had no ‘hard proof’ of India’s role in Nijjar killing, only ‘intel’ "Canada asked India to cooperate. Their (India) ask was for proof. We asked for Indian security agencies to investigate further and cooperate with us. Because at that point what we (Canada) had was intelligence," Trudeau said. "Their [Indian government] ask was how much do you know? Give us the evidence you have on this and our response was well...it's within your security agencies, you should be looking into how much they know. You should be engaging," said Trudeau. "At that point, it was primarily intelligence and not hard evidentiary proof. So we said, let's work together and look into your security services and maybe we can get that out," he added. The Canadian PM also added that Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadians and passing it to Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. (With inputs from agencies) Geopolitical writer at WION, follows Indian foreign policy and world politics, a truth seeker. None
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