Canada PM Trudeau's anti-India rhetoric: 'Khalistanis are taking him for a ride'

Canada PM Justin Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been playing to the gallery by levelling serious allegations against India without any proof, intel sources have told CNN-News18.

Sources said that Trudeau is pandering to both Khalistani and ISI elements by stepping up heat on India, even though he has publicly admitted to not having any strong evidence to support his claims and that he is only accusing New Delhi based on intelligence.

Trudeau has alleged that Indian agents played a role in the murder of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil in 2023, a charge vehemently denied by New Delhi.

“Trudeau, in his statement before the commission probing the case, told them they have only intelligence and no hard evidence. He told the commission that Canada wants to work with India but on the investigation front, they refused to oblige us,” sources said.

According to sources, Trudeau claimed that some MPs informed him about India's involvement in the killing but refrained from taking the names of any politicians.

They added Trudeau is not behaving like a responsible prime minister with his allegations.

“The Canadian Parliament is full of Khalistan sympathisers and they have taken Trudeau for a ride. How can a prime minister, on the basis of only intelligence given by some individuals, name and blame a country for a killing? Trudeau’s behaviour is not like that of a responsible prime minister and he has spoiled relations between two countries.”

Sources further told CNN-News18 that some arrested Sikh youths told Canadian police that Nijjar died due to gang rivalry.

“Their agency RCMP arrested Sikh youths who are suggesting that Nijjar was killed due to a gang war. So far, RCMP has not given any evidence of Indian involvement but Trudeau wants them to give favourable results to nail India," they said.

Notably, a Canadian opposition leader has accused Trudeau of using Nijjar's murder to divert attention from other controversies.

Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People's Party of Canada, said the Khalistani terrorist who is the central figure in the whole controversy was a foreign terrorist who was somehow granted citizenship in 2007.

"So far, however, we haven’t been given any proof. And Trudeau is clearly using this crisis to divert the attention from other controversies," he said.

Earlier, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) ripped into Trudeau for linking Indian agents to the killing and said that he is trying to advance his own domestic political agenda.

"It serves the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau Government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains," the MEA had said.

Sanjay Kumar Verma, India's envoy to Canada who was withdrawn from Ottawa by the Modi government, said that Trudeau has wrecked bilateral political ties between the two countries with his allegations.

Canada had identified Verma and other Indian envoys as "persons of interest" in the probe into Nijjar's killing.

The move by the Trudeau administration sparked a full-blown diplomatic spat between India and Canada. India has repeatedly criticised Trudeau's government for being soft on supporters of the Khalistan movement who live in Canada.