Canada issues travel advisory for India, a day after alleging India’s link to Khalistani leader’s murder

The travel advisory, issued on Tuesday, also asked Canadian citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution” while travelling to India.

“Avoid all travel to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir due to the unpredictable security situation. There is a threat of terrorism, militancy, civil unrest and kidnapping. This advisory excludes travelling to or within the Union Territory of Ladakh,” Canada stated in the advisory for India, marking it an “Exercise A High Degree Of Caution”.

The development assumes added significance in the backdrop of the ramping up confrontation between the two countries over Canada’s accusations that the Indian government may have been involved in the killing of Nijjar in June.

Both the countries also announced tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats over the last two days.

The latest development comes even as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday demanded that India treat with “utmost seriousness” Canada’s allegations of New Delhi’s possible involvement in the slaying of Nijjar, a concern echoed by Washington.

“India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate,” Trudeau told reporters.

Canada said on Monday that there were “credible allegations” that agents linked to New Delhi were responsible for the murder June 18 of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, in front of a Sikh cultural centre in a Vancouver suburb.

The Narendra Modi government called Canada’s allegations “absurd”.

Trudeau, however, on Tuesday said that his statement was not meant to “escalate” tensions with New Delhi. “We are not looking to provoke or escalate. We are simply laying out the facts as we understand them,” he said in Ottawa on Tuesday morning, according to public broadcaster CBC.