Nijjar was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, which is banned in India.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India on Monday of making a "fundamental error," as an escalating row over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil last year saw both countries expel each other's ambassadors.

India is recalling its ambassador hours after rejecting a Canadian notification that the diplomat was a 'person of interest' in a Sikh activist's assassination last year.

Tensions between the two nations have escalated since Canada alleged that the Indian government was linked to the June 2023 assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canada and India have expelled six of each other’s diplomats in one of the most severe actions yet in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada

Canada and India expelled each others’ most senior envoys, dramatically widening their rift as Canadian police leveled sweeping allegations that Indian diplomats and agents are implicated in “escalating” homicides and extortion.

The Canadian government said it expelled six Indian diplomats over allegations that the officials gathered intelligence about Sikh separatists who were then targeted for violence.