Avoid All Travel To India: Canada Warns Its Citizens Amid Row Over Hardeep Singh Nijjars Killing

NEW DELHI: Amid an ongoing row with New Delhi over the alleged killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canada on Tuesday updated its travel advisory, cautioning its citizens to avoid travelling to India. “Avoid all travel to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir due to the unpredictable security situation. There is a threat of terrorism, militancy, civil unrest and kidnapping. This advisory excludes travelling to or within the Union Territory of Ladakh,” the government of Canada said in its updated travel advisory for India.

“Avoid all travel to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir due to the unpredictable security situation. There is a threat of terrorism, militancy, civil unrest and kidnapping. This advisory excludes travelling to or within the Union Territory of Ladakh,” says Canada in its… pic.twitter.com/AxV7aZ18q3
— ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2023

The development comes amid the standoff between India and Canada over Khalistan Tiger Force Chief Nijjar’s killing. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had on Monday levelled ‘allegations’ on India being linked to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and added that Ottawa wants New Delhi to address the issue properly, according to CBC news reported. 

Trudeau, however, later said that Canada is not trying to provoke India by any means. “We are not looking to provoke or escalate. We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them,” the Canadian Prime Minister told reporters, according to CBC news.

“The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that,” he said.

“As for Canada, I said yesterday…we are going to remain calm, we are going to remain grounded in our democratic principles and values…. and we are going to follow the evidence and make sure the work is done…,” he added.

CBC News is a Canada-based media company, a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Najjar, who was wanted in India, was gunned down outside a Gurdwara, in a parking area in Canada’s Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.

Hailing from Bharsinghpur village in Punjab’s Jalandhar, Nijjar was based in Surrey and had been declared “absconder” by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). 

Canadian PM Trudeau on Monday alleged the Indian government of being behind the fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. 

Trudeau on Monday (US local time) claimed that his country’s national security officials had reasons to believe that “agents of the Indian government” carried out the killing of the Canadian citizen, who also served as the president of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said.

India has, however, rejected the allegations by Canadian PM Trudeau regarding the government’s involvement in the fatal shooting of Nijjar. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) termed the allegations ‘absurd ‘and ‘motivated’.

“We have seen and reject the statement of the Canadian Prime Minister in their Parliament, as also the statement by their Foreign Minister,” said the MEA in an official statement.

Canada’s assertion led to reciprocal expulsions of an Indian intelligence official from Canada and a senior Canadian diplomat from New Delhi.

The accusation was widely seen to further damage bilateral relations, which were already at an all-time low over the activities of pro-Khalistan elements in Canada, including holding a so-called referendum on a separate homeland for Sikhs, targeting of Indian diplomatic premises, and incitement of violence against top Indian officials.