NEW DELHI/OTTAWA - India on Monday asked six Canadian diplomats in New Delhi to leave the country by Saturday, hours after it decided to withdraw its high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and other "targeted diplomats and officials" from Canada.

Canada has also announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner.

Global Affairs Canada said in a news release that the diplomats and consular officials had received a notice of expulsion from Canada in relation to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the government of India.

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According to the release, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) gathered information that established linkages between the investigation and agents of the government of India.

In order to further the investigation and allow the RCMP to interview relevant individuals, India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunities and to cooperate in the investigation. Regrettably, as India did not agree and given the ongoing public safety concerns for Canadians, Canada served notices of expulsion to these individuals. Subsequent to those notices, India announced it would withdraw its officials, the release said.

"The decision to expel these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case," Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said. 

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"We continue to ask that the Indian government support the ongoing investigation in the Nijjar case."

RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme held a press conference on Monday, warning of a public security threat linked to agents of the Indian government.

New Delhi and Ottawa were locked in a diplomatic row in September 2023, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian agents played a role in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader. Nijjar was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in British Columbia on June 18, 2023.

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India outrightly denied the allegations and described them as "absurd and motivated".

The dispute was followed by the tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between the two sides.