Not aiming to provoke India: Justin Trudeau

Toronto : With India hitting back by expelling a Canadian diplomat from its High Commission in New Delhi after Ottawa ordered an Indian diplomat to leave moments after Justin Trudeau blamed India for the killing of pro-Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Canadian Prime Minister said on Tuesday that he is not aiming to provoke India.

"The government of India needs to take this matter with utmost seriousness. We are doing just that... We are not looking to provoke or escalate," Trudeau said in the morning briefing before the House of Commons started. Meanwhile, security has been tightened around the High Commission of Canada in the New Delhi as a precautionary measure, sources said on Tuesday.

This move followed the escalating tension in diplomatic relations between the two nations. On Monday, Trudeau in an emergency statement made in the Parliament had accused the Government of India of being involved in the killing of pro-Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on its soil. Nijjar was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia.

Trudeau had said that Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between the Indian government agents and the murder of Khalistan Tiger Force chief Nijjar.