Canadian police officials on Monday alleged that agents of the Indian government were working with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to plan and execute violence in the North American country.

Bishnoi, a gangster from Punjab, is currently lodged at Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Central Jail. The Mumbai Police suspect his involvement in the killing of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique on Saturday. Bishnoi has also been accused of masterminding the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala on May 29, 2022.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police made the accusations against the Indian government agents at a press conference in Ottawa. “What we have seen is the use of organised crime elements, and it’s been publicly attributed to one organised crime gang in particular… the Bishnoi group is connected to the agents of India,” Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gaubin said.

To a question on whether the main target of the alleged campaign was the Sikh Canadian community, the official said: “So yes, it is targeting the South Asian community, but what we’ve seen is that they are specifically targeting pro-Khalistan elements in Canada.”

The Canadian Police also released a statement alleging that Indian diplomats and consular officials “leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities, such as collecting information for the government of India, either directly or through their proxies; and other individuals who acted voluntarily or through coercion”.

Shortly before the press conference, The Washington Post quoted unidentified Canadian officials to report that Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing near Vancouver in June 2023 was “part of a broader campaign of violence against Indian dissidents” orchestrated by a senior Indian official and an operative from the country’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.

Canadian officials reportedly identified the Indian official who authorised information-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists as Union Home Minister Amit Shah. India’s foreign ministry has not yet responded to the allegation about Shah’s involvement.

The report quoted Canadian officials as claiming that there was an operational chain in which Indian diplomats based there would gather information about alleged Sikh separatists. The Research and Analysis Wing would use this information to identify targets for attacks, which were carried out by Bishnoi’s crime syndicate, the newspaper report claimed.

Hours after the police press conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the Indian government’s alleged support of violence against Canadians was “absolutely unacceptable”, reported CBC News.

“I think it is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians, here on Canadian soil,” Trudeau said during a Thanksgiving Monday news conference. “Whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts, it is absolutely unacceptable.”

Trudeau added that he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the end of last week and “highlighted how incredibly important meeting between our national security advisors in Singapore this weekend was going to be”. The Canadian prime minister said that he “pressed upon him [Modi] that the meeting needs to be taken very very seriously”.

On Friday, Trudeau told reporters that he had a “brief exchange” with Modi on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos. However, Indian news organisations quoted unidentified officials of the external affairs ministry as having refuted the claim. They said that there had been “no substantive discussion” between Modi and Trudeau and that the two leaders only greeted each other when they came face-to-face.

On Monday, the Canadian Prime Minister’s Office said that Trudeau had discussed the developments with his British counterpart Keir Starmer.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said at the press conference that she had been communicating with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday, The Hindu reported.

Joly added that Ottawa will continue discussing the developments with the Group of Seven and her counterparts in the Five Eyes, an intelligence sharing network that also includes the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Joly stated that Ottawa’s expulsion of Indian diplomats was aimed at sending a strong message about addressing “transnational repression”.

“It is important that India gets the message,” she said.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Tuesday that Canada had briefed Wellington about the ongoing criminal investigations. “The alleged criminal conduct outlined publicly by Canadian law enforcement authorities, if proven, would be very concerning,” Peters said on social media.

The developments in Canada took place shortly after the Indian government said it was withdrawing High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and some other diplomats from the North American country. It also announced that it had expelled six Canadian diplomats.

Earlier on Monday, New Delhi rejected a Canadian diplomatic communication naming Verma and other Indian envoys as “persons of interest” in an investigation in the country.

Diplomatic ties between India and Canada have been strained for more than a year.

In September 2023, Trudeau told his country’s parliament that intelligence agencies were actively pursuing “credible allegations” tying agents of the Indian government to Nijjar’s killing.

Nijjar was a supporter of Khalistan, an independent nation for Sikhs that some members of the community seek to carve out of India. He was the head of the Khalistan Tiger Force, which is designated a terrorist outfit in India.

New Delhi had rejected Canada’s allegations as “absurd and motivated” and said they were an attempt by Ottawa to divert attention from the fact that it was providing shelter to those threatening India’s sovereignty. India had also ordered Canada to withdraw more than 40 diplomatic staff from the country.