India visa website suspends services for Canada citizens amid diplomatic row

A notice declaring the suspension of India visa services for Canadian nationals appeared on an official website on Thursday, amid a furious diplomatic row between the two countries.

The announcement was billed as an “important notice from the Indian mission” and said that all visa services in Canada “have been suspended till further notice” with immediate effect, citing “operational reasons”.

It was issued by BLS International Services Limited, a company that provides outsourced visa processing services in Canada for the Indian government. The Indian government has yet to comment.

It comes after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of the Indian state’s involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, triggering a furious tit-for-tat row.

Relations between India and Canada have nosedived after Mr Trudeau’s allegation over the June death of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and president of a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Mr Trudeau told the Canadian parliament on Monday.

Canada also ejected an Indian diplomat who it identified as heading the intelligence wing of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa.

India has rejected the allegations as “absurd” and responded by ordering a similarly high-ranking Canadian diplomat in Delhi to leave the country within five days.

It has also issued a new travel advisory warning Indian citizens against travelling to certain parts of Canada.

The advisory from India’s foreign ministry urged those visiting Canada or already residing there to exercise caution due to “growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes”.

“Recently, threats have particularly targeted Indian diplomats and sections of the Indian community who oppose the anti-India agenda,” it said.

“Indian nationals are therefore advised to avoid travelling to regions and potential venues in Canada that have seen such incidents.”

Canada’s immigration minister Marc Miller rejected India’s concerns, saying: “Canada, by any standard, is one of the safest, if not the safest, country in the world that is governed by the rule of law.”

The growing rift centres around the murder of Nijjar, 45, who was fatally shot dead on 18 June in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surry, British Columbia.

He was president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara and a vocal advocate for the Khalistan movement, which calls for the creation of a separate nation for Sikhs out of India’s Punjab state.

India, which sees the Khalistan movement as a threat to its national security, had designted Nijjar a wanted terrorist and issued a bounty of Rs 1m (£9,710) for information leading to his arrest. It accused him of leading a proscribed militant organisation and recruiting for criminal activities against India, charges his supporters strongly denied.

The issue of the Khalistan movement, which peaked in India in the 1980s with a violent insurgency in Punjab state, has long been a thorny issue in ties between India and Canada.

Canada has an estimated 1.4 to 1.8 million Indian-origin people, including the largest Sikh population in the world outside of India’s Punjab state.