Canada says India 'cooperating' in its probe over Sikh activist's murder

India is cooperating with Canada, and bilateral ties are improving after tensions spiked over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia, a top Canadian official told CTV in an interview.

"I wouldn't describe them [the Indians] as not cooperating. I think we've made advancements in that relationship," Jody Thomas, Trudeau's national security adviser, told CTV on Friday.

CTV published an excerpt from the interview on its website on Friday. The full interview will be aired on Sunday.

Diplomatic relations soured after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year said Canada was "actively pursuing credible allegations" that Indian agents were potentially linked to the June 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen.

India dismissed Canada's allegations as "absurd" and, in turn, accused Ottawa of harbouring "extremists."

Canada is home to the largest Sikh community in the world outside of India, with 770,000 Canadians professing Sikhism in 2021, or two percent of the country's population.

Ottawa withdrew 41 diplomats from India after New Delhi in September asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence following Trudeau's remarks.

US busts Indian official's plot to kill Sikh leader

Last November, US authorities said they had thwarted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist in the United States.

Officials said an Indian government official directed a plot to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.

US officials became aware of the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who advocated for the creation of a sovereign Sikh state and is considered a "terrorist" by the Indian government.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration interceded and set up a sting, with an undercover agent posing as a hitman, after the Indian conspirators recruited an international narcotics trafficker in the plot to kill the activist for $100,000.

After US conducted the bombshell operation, India ordered a high-level inquiry to find if any government official may have had knowledge of a plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader on American soil.

"The information that they [the Americans] revealed supported our position and our assertions with India, and India is working with us ... far more closely to resolve this," Thomas told CTV.

Trudeau said in December he sensed a change in New Delhi's tone with Ottawa after the US case.

The acrimony has delayed discussions on a free-trade deal and threatened Canada's plans to expand its influence in the Asia-Pacific region, where New Delhi's cooperation is critical.

"Our ability to function in the Indo-Pacific does rely on having a healthy relationship with India. And I think that we are working back towards that," Thomas said.

Around two million Canadians, or 5 percent of the population, have Indian heritage.

Pakistan sees Indian role in killing of two citizens

Pakistan too has accused India's intelligence agency of involvement in the extrajudicial killings of its citizens, saying it had "credible evidence" linking two Indian agents to the assassinations of two Pakistani nationals last year.

"We have documentary, financial and forensic evidence of the involvement of the two Indian agents who masterminded these assassinations," Foreign Secretary Sajjad Qazi said on Thursday at a news conference in Islamabad.

"Clearly the Indian network of extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings has become a global phenomenon," Qazi said.

Qazi said the Indian agents, whom he identified as Yogesh Kumar and Ashok Kumar, orchestrated the deaths of the two Pakistanis from a third country, adding the method of killings was similar to cases in Canada and US.

India has denied the Pakistani allegation, calling it an "attempt at peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda."