Justin Trudeau’s Accusations Spotlight Reach of India’s Intelligence Agencies

The Canadian prime minster’s accusation of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh nationalist signifies a sharp escalation in diplomatic tensions between India and Canada.

The accusation by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, that the Indian government orchestrated a campaign to threaten and kill Sikhs on Canadian soil has cast a spotlight on the potential reach of India’s shadowy intelligence network, which has been known to operate mainly in South Asia.

Mr. Trudeau’s allegations have surprised many in diplomatic circles, who say that countries are typically reluctant to air allegations of espionage and assassinations against foreign intelligence services.

India’s neighbors — especially its archrival, Pakistan, with which it has fought multiple wars — are well acquainted with Indian covert operations, which are widely understood to have involved targeted airstrikes and assassinations on foreign soil.

But because of the public way Canada has laid out its case, the wider world is now getting a glimpse of how diplomats, spies, bureaucrats and police officers who work in Indian intelligence likely operate, and how senior government officials may direct their activities.

Mr. Trudeau’s strongly worded statements on Monday escalated a diplomatic row between the two countries that had been brewing for more than a year, over the killing of a Canadian Sikh citizen in Canada.

The Canadian authorities said on Monday that they believe six diplomats were part of a broad criminal network, spread across the country, involved in intimidation, harassment and extortion aimed at Canadian Sikhs, as well as homicides.

Among other details, they said that the group of Indian agents would collect intelligence to threaten and intimidate Sikhs, either through paid informants or by extorting and threatening individuals within the communities.

Canadian officials said they had been helped in their investigation by the F.B.I. But they did not provide any specific details about how the network operated, who their handlers were, what crimes they committed and who their victims had been.

Mr. Trudeau had earlier accused the Indian government of organizing the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who pushed for the creation of a separate nation-state, called Khalistan, as a homeland for Sikhs to be crafted out of India’s Punjab state.

Canadian officials on Monday accused India of running a major intelligence gathering network in Canada.

They expelled six Indian diplomats, including India’s high commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma. On Tuesday, Indian government officials called it “absurd” that the Canadian government targeted Mr. Verma after regularly engaging with him in the past year in their investigation.

Officials in Ottawa have provided little specific evidence to back up their allegations, which India has strongly denied. On Monday, the Indian government also expelled six Canadian diplomats.

India’s two main agencies are the Research and Analysis Wing, which is responsible for external intelligence, and the Intelligence Bureau, its largely domestic counterpart.

The most senior official in the intelligence and national security apparatus is Ajit Doval, India’s national security adviser. Mr. Doval, a veteran of the spy business and former law enforcement officer, is a close adviser of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and has been known to wield significant influence by using intelligence to shape foreign policy, according to analysts.

“Under the leadership of Modi and Doval, Indian intelligence agencies got a boost,” said Dheeraj Paramesha-Chaya, a lecturer in intelligence and international security at the School of Criminology, Sociology and Policing of the University of Hull, in England. “There was greater funding and freedom of agencies.”

The historical focus of the Research and Analysis Wing has long been tied to India’s regional security needs, primarily from China and Pakistan. It was carved out of the Intelligence Bureau in 1968, following India’s conflicts with China during that decade, when border disputes erupted into armed conflict.

Over time, Pakistan became the biggest focus of the Research and Analysis Wing, as it and India took advantage of drug wars and religious tensions to sow conflict in each other’s territories. But the wing’s agents are spread out across major Indian embassies, and as India’s global ambitions has grown, so has its need for a wider intelligence-gathering apparatus.

Still, Dr. Paramesha-Chaya was doubtful that the threat from Sikh extremists based in Canada was significant enough for India to carry out targeted assassinations on foreign soil.

“They are not a political threat to Modi at all to use national resources to go on eliminating” Sikhs leading the Khalistan movement in Canada and the United States, he said. “The movement has not grown up to be a national security threat” to India, he added.

Still, Mr. Modi, in his election campaigning, has been amplifying the potential threat posed by Sikh extremists.

India has been cooperating with the United States on a similar case from last year, when the Justice Department accused an Indian national of trying to arrange the killing of the general counsel of a pro-Khalistan group who held both American and Canadian passports. The indictment detailed evidence against the accused man, and Indian officials said they have been cooperating with the U.S. investigation.

On Sept. 17, the man, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against the Indian government and other officials, including Mr. Doval and the former head of the Research and Analysis Wing, Samant Goel. Mr. Pannun, who represents Sikhs for Justice and has been labeled a terrorist by India, said he continues to fear for his life. He also sought damages from the defendants.

Later that month, Mr. Doval was not present at a meeting between President Biden and Mr. Modi during the Indian leader’s U.S. visit, raising speculation that his absence might have had to do with the lawsuit. However, Indian officials said Mr. Doval had been overseeing domestic matters at the time of the meeting.

In India, media organizations and commentators have taken a near uniform view: that Mr. Trudeau’s actions against India are driven entirely by domestic politics. He has long courted Canadian Sikhs, who make up about 2 percent of Canada’s population. And they have become a growing political force whose support the prime minister relies on to hold onto power.

“Trudeau’s actions have crossed India’s red line, which suggests that the bilateral relationship could potentially worsen further before efforts to repair ties can begin under a new Canadian government,” said Brahma Chellaney, a commentator on global strategic issues.

K.C. Singh, a former Indian diplomat, posted on social media that a “crisis point” had been reached when the prime minister of one country levels such serious accusations at another nation. “Normally the highest levels are kept out of the squabble to allow compromise later.”

Suhasini Raj contributed reporting.