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India today formally charged Canada to allegedly providing shelter to criminals and terrorists who are on wanted list in India.

The official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday the 17th of October 2024 that 26 extradition requests are pending with Canada, along with several provisional arrest requests, of criminals who are wanted in India on terrorism charges, and that it has also shared information regarding Lawrence Bishnoi gang members in Canada, but Ottawa has taken no action on this so far.

Jaiswal was interacting with media during his weekly presser said ‘current crisis in the bilateral relations has been precipitated by the Trudeau government’s baseless allegations’ on India.

He added that India had sent extradition requests for Gurjeet Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Lakhbir Singh Landa and Arshdeep Singh Gill, who are part of criminal gangs, including of the Bishnoi gang, and are operating in Canada. The extradition requests were sent since over the past decade.

He also remarked that “We find it really strange that the people we asked to be deported, that the RCMP is now blaming the Indian side for their activities”.

He said that there have been clear instances of Indian-origin people being intimidated, and several instances have come to light, including of Indian-origin journalists being attacked by pro-Khalistani elements. “These are clear examples of intimidation and violence by those who openly espouse extremist ideology. Shifting the blame on India does not work in any manner.”

The spokesperson also said that Canada has levelled “serious charges” against India but has so far not provided any evidence in support.

“We see a pattern to this,” he said, adding that the Trudeau government was doing it due to political considerations.

“There is a clear pattern to smear India for reasons best known to them,” he said.

He also added that it is “an evolving situation. We’ll see how it goes. Certain actions lie in the domain of the Canadian government and certain in India’s domain, we’ll see how it goes.”

The spokesperson said that PM Justin Trudeau since 2023, when he told Parliament that he saw an Indian hand in the killing of Indo-Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year, “Canada not shared a shred of information with us”.

“We will naturally reject false allegations against our diplomats,” he said, referring to the Canadian communique alleging that Indian diplomats in Ottawa were “persons of interest” in the probe into the Nijjar killing.