Canada’s foreign minister has warned remaining Indian diplomats in the country that they are “clearly concerned” not to endanger the lives of Canadians after New Delhi’s top envoy to Canada was named as a person involved in the killing of a Sikh activist is.

India’s high commissioner was expelled on Monday along with five other diplomats, prompting Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly to compare India to Russia and say Canada’s national police had linked Indian diplomats to killings, death threats and intimidation in Canada.

Joly said Friday that Canada will not tolerate foreign diplomats putting the lives of Canadians at risk.

“We have never seen this in our history. This level of cross-border repression cannot take place on Canadian soil. We have seen it elsewhere in Europe. Russia did this in Germany and the United Kingdom and we had to stand firm on this issue,” she said in Montreal.

Asked whether more Indian diplomats will be expelled, Joly said: “They have clearly been notified. Six of them were expelled, including the High Commissioner in Ottawa. Others came mainly from Toronto and Vancouver and of course we do not tolerate diplomats who violate the Vienna Convention.”

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats targeted Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home. They said senior Indian officials then passed that information on to Indian organized crime groups, who targeted the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortion and even murder.

India, for its part, has rejected the Canadian allegations as absurd and its foreign ministry said it would expel Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response.

Canada is not the only country to accuse Indian officials of plotting an attack on foreign soil. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee in connection with an alleged foiled plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.

In the case announced by the Justice Department, Vikash Yadav, who authorities say led the New York conspiracy from India, is charged with murder-for-hire in a planned murder that prosecutors say was intended to precede a series of other politically motivated killings in the United States and Canada.

US authorities said the killing of the American Sikh man took place just days after the June 18, 2023 shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh activist, outside a cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia to kill at least four people in Canada and the United States as of June 29, 2023, and more thereafter.

Nijjar’s murder in Canada has strained India-Canada relations for more than a year, and although Canada claims it has forwarded evidence of its allegations to Indian authorities, the Indian government continues to deny having seen such evidence.

India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of the Sikh separatist movement Khalistan, which is banned in India but enjoys support in the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.

Trudeau said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed to him at a G-20 summit in India last year that he wanted Canada to arrest people who had openly spoken out against the Indian government. Trudeau said he told Modi he believed the actions in Canada fell under freedom of expression.

Trudeau added that he had told Modi that his government would work with India on concerns about terrorism, incitement to hatred or anything that was unacceptable in Canada. But Trudeau also pointed out that while it is not Canadian government policy, advocating separatism is not illegal in Canada.

Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck last year. A Canadian citizen born in India, he owned a plumbing company and led what was left of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.

Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial.