{"id":38020,"date":"2023-09-21T09:18:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T09:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=38020"},"modified":"2023-09-21T09:18:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T09:18:25","slug":"india-suspends-visas-for-canadians-as-row-escalates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/09\/21\/india-suspends-visas-for-canadians-as-row-escalates\/","title":{"rendered":"India suspends visas for Canadians as row escalates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

India has suspended visa services for Canadian citizens amid an escalating row over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visa service provider BLS posted a message from India’s mission blaming “operational reasons” for the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions flared this week after Canada said it was investigating “credible allegations” linking India with the murder of the separatist leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India angrily rejected the allegation calling it “absurd”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts say relations between the countries, which have been strained for months, are now at an all-time low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message about the suspension of visas was first posted on the BLS website on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Important notice from Indian Mission: Due to operational reasons, with effect from 21 September 2023, Indian visa services have been suspended till further notice,” it read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India’s foreign ministry refused to comment on the matter and asked the BBC to refer to the BLS website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move comes a day after India issued an advisory urging its citizens travelling to or living in Canada to “exercise utmost caution” in view of the “growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence in Canada”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delhi said that some recent threats were directed at its diplomats and some Indians “who oppose the anti-India agenda”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that intelligence agencies were investigating whether “agents of the government of India” were involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen – India had designated him a terrorist in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nijjar was shot dead in his vehicle by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple on 18 June in British Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Mr Trudeau told the Canadian parliament on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India reacted strongly, saying that Canada was trying to “shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists” who had been given shelter there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian government has often reacted sharply to demands by Sikh separatists in Western countries for Khalistan, or a separate Sikh homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Khalistan movement peaked in India in the 1980s with a violent insurgency centred in Sikh-majority Punjab state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was quelled by force and has little resonance in India now, but is still popular among some in the Sikh diaspora in countries such as Canada, Australia and the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada has the highest number of Sikhs outside Punjab and has seen several pro-Khalistan protests and demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, reports said India had raised a “formal complaint” with Canada about the safety of its diplomats there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India has suspended visa services for Canadian citizens amid an escalating row over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil. Visa service provider BLS posted a message from India’s mission blaming “operational reasons” for the decision. Tensions flared this week after Canada said it was investigating “credible allegations” linking India with the murder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":38021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[461,12],"tags":[12487,11264,3347,2735,5268,12913,12708,1953,11017,1977,11254,11555,7340,11381,6083,12257,12624,5663,12310,2264,10665,5440,8342,10544,8923,4804,10671,10454,11743,12287,5382,1198,3174,11259,10692,12151,7609,12605,5647,6585,594],"class_list":["post-38020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world-news","tag-agenda","tag-allegations","tag-australia","tag-bbc","tag-british","tag-british-columbia","tag-by-force","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-prime-minister-justin-trudeau","tag-citizen","tag-citizens","tag-columbia","tag-complaint","tag-dead","tag-delhi","tag-diaspora","tag-diplomats","tag-exercise","tag-government","tag-hardeep-singh-nijjar","tag-india","tag-indian","tag-indians","tag-justin","tag-justin-trudeau","tag-khalistan","tag-killing","tag-majority","tag-movement","tag-murder","tag-parliament","tag-prime-minister","tag-shot","tag-sikh","tag-suspension","tag-terrorist","tag-uk","tag-visa","tag-visas","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38022,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38020\/revisions\/38022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}