Region:
India
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Politics

India suspends visa services for Canadians as stand-off escalates

  • India suspends visa services for Canadians as stand-off escalates
    India counters Canada’s ‘politically driven’ claims, flags ‘inaction’ on terror. India suspends visa services for Canadians as stand-off escalates
Region:
India
Category:
Politics
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India counters Canada’s ‘politically driven’ claims, flags ‘inaction’ on terror.
Canada's allegations seem to be politically driven, the ministry of external affairs stated on Thursday amid a diplomatic row between the two nations.

The government on Thursday said that the allegations made by Canada claiming a "potential link" of agents of the Indian government to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar seem to be "politically driven".

"I do think there is a degree of prejudice here. They have made allegations and taken action on them. To us, it seems that these allegations by the government of Canada are primarily politically driven," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a press conference.

On Indian visa services suspension

Arindam Bagchi said that the Indian High Commission and Consulates in Canada are facing security threats and the visa services have been suspended due to "security situation".

"We will be reviewing the situation regularly," the MEA said.

The government clarified that those who have valid visas or have Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards are free to travel to India.

"The issue is the incitement of violence, inaction by Canadian authorities, and the creation of an environment that disrupts the functioning of our consulates, which is what is making us stop temporarily the issuance of visa services," the government said.

The situation will be reviewed on a regular basis, the MEA said.