Prime Minister Modi ordered attacks on Sikh separatists in Canada, the official said

home minister of India Amit Shah sanction a wave a violence TARGETING Sikh separatists fish Canadasaid a senior official from the North American country.

Mr. Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chief lieutenantwas identified by Canadian security agencies as the “senior official in India” who “authorized intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists” in the country, The Washington Post reported earlier this month based on information provided by a Canadian source.

The source was Deputy Foreign Secretary David Morrison. “The journalist called me and asked if she was that person. We have confirmed that it was that person,” Mr Morrison told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

He did not explain how the Canadian authorities identified Mr. Shah.

India had yet to respond to Mr Morrison’s statement or the allegations against Mr Shah more generally as of Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Morrison’s remarks came after Canada this month expelled six Indian diplomats it said were linked to the June 2023 assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

India had previously denied the Canadian allegations and retaliated by expelling six Canadian diplomats.

Relations between the two countries collapsed after the prime minister Justin Trudeau last year said Canada had credible evidence that Indian agents were involved in Nijjar’s assassination.

This month, Mr Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police made public allegations that Indian diplomats are targeting Sikh separatists in the country by sharing information about them with New Delhi.

Senior Indian officials, in turn, were feeding him the information organized criminal groups to extort, intimidate and even kill Canadian Sikh activists, they said.

India dismissed the allegations as absurd. It also denied repeated Canadian claims that Ottawa had shared evidence to support their allegations against Indian officials.

Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting assassinations on foreign soil.

The US Department of Justice recently filed criminal charges against an Indian government employee in connection with a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader in New York City.

US authorities said Vikash Yadav led the plot from India and will face murder-for-hire charges. The foiled plot, they said, was meant to precede a series of politically motivated killings in the US and Canada.

Amid freezing relations with India, Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre canceled a celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday.

The decision sparked a backlash from Indians in Canada, including the event’s organizers, who said they had not been informed of the holiday’s cancellation.

Shiv Bhasker, president of Overseas Friends of India Canada, called the move “discriminatory” and “insensitive.”

“The sudden withdrawal of political leaders from this event, prompted by the current diplomatic situation between Canada and India, has left us feeling betrayed and unfairly singled out,” Mr. Bhasker said.

The Independent contacted Mr. Shah’s office for comment.