A furious diplomatic row between India and Canada has pushed an otherwise fringe separatist campaign for an independent Sikh homeland in Punjab into the international spotlight.

Nijjar was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple that he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland. The movement is banned in India.

Tensions between Canada and India have escalated dramatically following accusations of foreign interference, murder, and extortion leveled by Canadian authorities against the Indian government.

The brazen June 2023 assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada sparked a diplomatic row with India that continues to escalate.

India slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday as "cavalier" over his handling of the disastrous diplomatic fallout following the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist in Canada.

Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose murder in June 2023 near his home in Vancouver sparked a diplomatic storm between India and Canada, was a long-time campaigner for a separate

The latest flare-up in diplomatic tensions comes a year after Ottawa accused New Delhi of being involved in the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil.