Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday that his country was not trying to provoke India by suggesting it was linked to the murder of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar,

“We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them,” he added. “For Canada, as 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 that the work is done to hold people to account.”

Trudeau added that the Indian government needed to deal with the matter with “utmost seriousness” as Canada wanted answers.

His comments came amid rising tensions between the two countries over Ottawa’s accusations that New Delhi may have been involved in the assassination of 45-year-old Sikh separatist leader in June in Surrey, outside Vancouver.

India has rejected the charges as “absurd and motivated”. It also expelled a Canadian diplomat, a tit-for-tat move after Canada expelled an official of the Indian foreign intelligence service.

Canada has not yet made public any evidence of India’s involvement in Nijjar’s death after Trudeau on Monday said in the Canadian parliament that his country’s security agencies were actively pursuing “credible allegations” tying New Delhi’s agents to the shooting.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau added. “It’s contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.”

Nijjar was the head of the Khalistan Tiger Force, which is designated a terrorist outfit in India. He was among India’s most wanted persons and one of three Khalistan supporters who have died overseas in unusual circumstances in recent months.

On May 6, Khalistan Commando Force chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar was shot dead in Pakistan’s Lahore. He had escaped to Pakistan in 1995.

On June 15, Avtar Singh Khanda, a member of the Khalistan Liberation Force, died at a hospital in the United Kingdom’s Birmingham. While some news reports suggest that Khanda was terminally ill with blood cancer and died of the prolonged illness, Khanda’s supporters allege that had been poisoned.

Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of the report incorrectly said that Canada has advised its citizens travelling to India to exercise caution. The portion has been removed after it came to light that the advisory was not a fresh development.