Minister Says India Will Resume Canada Visas If Diplomats Are Safe

India will resume issuing visas to Canadian citizens if it “sees progress” in the safety of its diplomats there, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has said.

India had stopped visa services in September, saying that “security threats” were disrupting work at its missions in Canada.

The two countries are in the midst of a row over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada.

Ottawa has said earlier that it takes “safety of diplomats very seriously”.

However, it has not responded to India’s specific allegations about threats to its diplomats in Canada.

Ties between the Countries plummeted after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September that his Country was investigating “credible allegations potentially linking” the Indian state to a Sikh leader’s killing.

India strongly rejected the allegations, calling them “absurd”.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was shot dead in his vehicle by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia in June.

Nijjar was a vocal advocate for Khalistan, or a separate Sikh homeland, a sensitive subject in India, which witnessed a violent insurgency over the demand in the 1980s.

BBC