'Failed to act against terrorism for 40 years': Indian envoy slams Canada

New Delhi: In a sharply worded and at times confrontational interview on Canada's state-backed broadcaster CBC on Tuesday, India's High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, accused Canadian authorities of having "failed for 40 years" to act against terrorist elements operating on their soil, saying Ottawa's long inaction had created a permissive environment for extremism and violence targeting India.

The interview, which came as British Columbia Premier David Eby leads a trade mission to India and as Ottawa signals a thaw in ties with New Delhi, quickly moved beyond economics and into the most sensitive fault line in the bilateral relationship: allegations surrounding the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Canada's broader handling of the extremist groups. Patnaik pushed back forcefully against repeated assertions by the CBC anchor that Canadian intelligence and police had "credible information" linking Indian agents to Nijjar's killing.

"Where is the evidence?" the High Commissioner asked. "These are allegations that have not been backed by evidence. There's always easy to make accusations. Accusations are easy." He went further, turning the tables on Canada by pointing to what he described as decades of Canadian failure to prosecute or dismantle extremist networks.