Canada Removes Officials From India After Threat to Revoke Diplomatic Immunity

OTTAWA—Canada on Thursday said dozens of its diplomats in India have left the country after the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi threatened to remove their diplomatic immunity.

The move marks an escalation of a dispute between the two countries centered on the fatal shooting of a Sikh independence leader on Canadian soil. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that authorities were pursuing “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the fatal shooting this year of a Sikh independence leader on Canada’s west coast. India has called Canada’s allegation “absurd.”

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters the Indian government intended to remove diplomatic immunity for 41 of its diplomats in New Delhi, and their dependents, as of Friday. Joly said Canada decided to remove the diplomats and their families, in fear of their safety. Twenty-one Canadian diplomats remain in the country.

“This is an unreasonable act,” she said, adding India offered “no good reason” to revoke diplomatic immunity. “It’s a reaction that isn’t measured.”

Diplomatic immunity as a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are allowed to conduct their work without fear of reprisal or arrest from the country they are posted to.

A spokesman for India’s High Commission in Canada didn’t respond Thursday to requests for comment. A spokesman for India’s foreign ministry said last month, and again last week, that it wanted Canada to reduce its diplomatic presence in New Delhi, in response to what India considered foreign interference in Indian affairs.

Joly said it would not retaliate. “If we allow the norm of diplomatic immunity to be broken, no diplomats anywhere on the planet would be safe.”

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank, said removal of diplomats further roils a relationship already in crisis.

“Had Ottawa not complied with India’s demand, or had it chosen to reciprocate, tensions could have plunged even deeper,” he said. “Emotions may still be too raw for tensions to be dialed down.”

In June, the Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot several times while sitting in his pickup in the parking lot of a temple in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. Nijjar, the temple president, died on the scene, and police say they are looking for three suspects.

Following the bombshell allegation, Canada expelled an Indian diplomat, identified as Pavan Kumar Rai, the local station chief for India’s foreign-spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing. The next day, India expelled a Canadian diplomat. Neither the Indian nor Canadian governments identified the diplomat expelled, although Indian news media identified the diplomat as the local Canadian intelligence station chief.

Senior Canadian officials on Thursday said Trudeau’s allegations, presented to lawmakers on Sept. 18, followed weeks of talks with Indian officials—including trips involving the prime minister’s national security advisor and spy chief—to obtain India’s cooperation in the Nijjar investigation. Trudeau raised the issue directly with Modi during a brief meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit held in New Delhi.

Joly didn’t respond directly to reporters’ questions on whether Canada shared its evidence with Indian officials.

Canadian intelligence agencies intercepted communications among Indian diplomats indicating New Delhi was involved in Nijjar’s death, and U.S. authorities shared intelligence that helped firm up and contextualize Ottawa’s conclusion, according to a Western official.

Senior Canadian officials said the reduction in diplomatic staff means a curtailment in immigration and visa services, among other things. India is by far the largest source of international students studying in Canada.

Write to Paul Vieira at Paul.Vieira@wsj.com