A timeline of Canada-India tensions — from 2018 to today's arrests

Relations between Canada and India have been under pressure for years, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have quarreled over Sikh separatist elements in this country.

Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India — about 770,000 people, or about 2.1 per cent of the country's population, according to federal data.

Some of those Sikh Canadians (experts suggest they make up a relatively small share of the whole) support the creation of a separate Sikh homeland independent from India. They have sent money and resources to support the cause and have staged unofficial referendums here in Canada, actions that have been condemned by India's leadership.

Trudeau, like his predecessors, has said Canada supports a «united India.»

He hasn't cracked down on Sikh separatist discourse, despite intense Indian pressure to do so. Some Sikh Canadians have defended the push for an independent «Khalistan» as a peaceful movement for greater Sikh autonomy in India.

The fractious relationship came to a head last fall when Trudeau said publicly that Canadian authorities have been «actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link» between agents working for the Indian government and the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside his Surrey, B.C. gurdwara in June 2023.

India rejected Trudeau's claim as «absurd» and accused Canadians of interfering in «internal matters.» Both countries subsequently kicked out each other's diplomats.

On Friday, Canadian police arrested members of a hit squad alleged to have carried out the Nijjar killing. Investigators have said they believe the alleged assassins were retained by the Indian government.

Speaking to Punjabi media in Canada on the