In September of last year, Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat, and a senior Canadian diplomat was expelled from India in return, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons there was credible intelligence about a potential link between India’s government and the killing of B.C. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canada said it had identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in an assassination plot and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday.

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