CANADA has recalled 41 of its diplomats from India after that country’s government said that it would revoke their diplomatic immunity, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Thursday.

The move worsened relations between the two countries, which had already been soured by Canadian allegations that India may have been involved in the June killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in suburban Vancouver. 

India has accused Canada of harbouring separatists and “terrorists” and dismissed the allegation of its involvement in the killing as “absurd.” It has taken diplomatic steps to express its anger over the accusation.

Ms Joly said on Thursday that 41 of her country’s 62 diplomats in India have been removed, along with their dependents, adding that exceptions had been made for 21 Canadian diplomats who will remain in India.

“Forty-one Canadian diplomats and their 42 dependents were in danger of having their immunity stripped on an arbitrary date and this would put their personal safety at risk,” she said. 

“A unilateral revocation of the diplomatic privilege and immunity is contrary to international law and a clear violation of the Geneva convention on diplomatic relations. 

“Threatening to do so is unreasonable and escalatory.”

Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi had previously called for a reduction in Canadian diplomats in India, saying that they outnumbered India’s staffing in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing of Mr Nijjar, a Sikh leader who was shost by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver.

For years, New Delhi had claimed that Mr Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, had links to terrorism.

Mr Nijjar, who denied the allegations, was a leader of a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan.