“Their numbers here are very much higher than ours in Canada... I assume there will be a reduction,” he said.

Visa consultancy service provider BLS International, an Indian company, had earlier said a notice from the Indian mission in Canada cited “operational reasons” for suspension of visa services “till further notice”. The notice on the company’s website was briefly removed before it was reinstated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has categorically rejected Canada’s suspicions that Indian agents had links to the murder.

India-Canada ties going ‘south rapidly’ amid row over killing of Sikh separatist

The foreign ministry in New Delhi issued an updated travel advisory, urging its nationals and especially those studying in the North American country to be cautious because of “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate crimes”.

In Ottawa, Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc dismissed the Indian warning. “Canada is a safe country,” he told reporters.

Canada has yet to provide any evidence of Indian involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh leader killed by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver.

Canada’s High Commission said on Thursday it was to “adjust” the number of its diplomats in India after threats on social media, as the diplomatic row with New Delhi escalated.

“With some diplomats having received threats on various social media platforms, Global Affairs Canada is assessing its staff complement in India”, the mission said in a statement. “As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to temporarily adjust staff presence in India”.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar: Who was the Sikh activist whose killing has divided Canada and India?

For years, India has said Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, has links to terrorism, an allegation he denied. Nijjar was working to organise an unofficial Sikh diaspora referendum on independence from India at the time of his killing.

Indian authorities designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020 and accused him of supporting demands for an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan, that started as an insurgency in India’s Punjab state in 1970s and 1980s and was crushed in an Indian government crackdown.

The movement has since lost much of its political power but still has supporters in Punjab, where Sikhs are in a majority, as well as among the sizeable overseas Sikh diaspora.

India’s foreign ministry also said Trudeau’s allegations “seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

With both nations expelling diplomats, analysts said India and Canada diplomatic ties have touched their lowest point.

Canada is India’s 17th largest foreign investor, pouring in more than US$3.6 billion since 2000, while Canadian portfolio investors have invested billions of dollars in Indian stock and debt markets.

Since 2018, India has been the largest source country for international students in Canada.

In 2022, their number rose 47 per cent to nearly 320,000, accounting for about 40 per cent of total overseas students, the Canadian Bureau of International Education says, which also helps universities and colleges provide a subsidised education to domestic students.

Reporting by Reuters, Associated Press, Agence-France Presse