Pallade Veneta - India denies minister plotted anti-Sikh attacks in Canada

Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India, and includes activists for "Khalistan", a fringe separatist movement seeking an independent state for the religious minority carved out of Indian territory.

Ottawa has previously accused India of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan campaigner.

But this week, Canadian officials said Ottawa had traced a broader campaign targeting Canadian Sikh activists to the highest levels of India's government, implicating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's powerful right-hand man.

"The Government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union Home Minister of India," foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told reporters.

Jaiswal said that a Canadian diplomat had been summoned and issued a letter to formally protest the accusation against Shah.

Testifying before a Canadian parliamentary committee this week, deputy foreign ministry David Morrison confirmed a Washington Post story implicating Shah in a plot to intimidate and even kill Canadian Sikhs.

The Post cited an unnamed senior Canadian official as having said that Shah authorised an intelligence gathering and attacks campaign, including the 2023 killing of Nijjar.

Morrison said he was a source for the information, telling the committee: "The journalist called me and asked me if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person."

- Diplomatic freefall -

Jaiswal hit back for New Delhi on Saturday by accusing Canadian officials of deliberately leaking "unfounded insinuations" to the media to "discredit India".

"Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties," he added.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the national police have in the past said there were "clear indications" of India's involvement in the murder, as well as a broad campaign of intimidation, violence and other threats against Khalistan activists.

India has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, which have sent diplomatic relations into freefall.

Delhi and Ottawa last month each expelled the other's ambassador and other senior diplomats.

The day after Morrison spoke, a Canadian spy agency issued a report warning that India was using cyber technology to track Sikh separatists abroad and had also stepped up cyber attacks against Canadian government networks.

Shah, 60, oversees India's internal security forces as home minister.

He is often called India's second-most powerful person after Prime Minister Modi, whom he has served loyally for decades.

Shah has a reputation as a masterful political strategist and was credited by Modi for engineering the 2014 election win that swept the leader to power.

A.Fallone--PV