Bangladesh on Friday alleged that Canada is becoming a “hub of murderers”, reported India Today.

In an interview, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said that he hopes Ottawa will stop providing a safe haven to those who flout the law in their own countries.

“Canada must not be a hub of all the murderers,” said Momen. “The murderers can go to Canada and take shelter, and they can have a wonderful life while those they killed, their relatives are suffering. So, we have been asking the Canadian government to deport them. They know it, but unfortunately, currently, they do not even talk to us on this issue.”

The statement comes amid the deteriorating diplomatic ties between India and Canada. Ottawa alleged last week that the Indian government may be behind the killing of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil.

The allegations pertained to Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force, who was shot dead in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey near Vancouver on June 18. The Khalistan Tiger Force is a designated terrorist outfit in India.

India quickly dismissed Ottawa’s claims as “motivated” and asked Canada to take legal action against “anti-Indian elements” operating from its soil instead.

Stating that Bangladesh shares a good relationship with India, Momen said on Friday that all countries need to have zero tolerance towards terrorists.

This week, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry had also stated that terrorists have found a haven in Canada, reported ANI. Sabry accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of making “outrageous allegations” against New Delhi.

“The Canadian PM has a way of coming out with these outrageous allegations without any supporting proof,” said the Sri Lankan minister. “The same thing they did for Sri Lanka, a terrible, total lie about saying that Sri Lanka had a genocide. Everybody knows there was no genocide in our country.”

India last week indefinitely suspended visa services in Canada citing security threats to its officials. New Delhi also said that Canada needed to look into its growing reputation as a “safe haven” to terrorists, extremists and those involved in organised crime.

On Friday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that Canada has given operative space to terrorists and extremists, adding that it is an issue that has been a point of contention for long between the two countries.

“In the last few years, it [diplomatic crisis with Canada] has come back into play because of what we consider to be a very permissive Canadian attitude towards terrorists, extremists who openly advocate violence,” Jaishankar said in response to a question at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC.

Also read: