<\/p>\n
After Canada accused<\/a> India of involvement in the killing of a separatist Sikh leader on its soil, former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Tuesday it was time for the international community to accept that India had become a \u201crogue Hindutva terrorist state\u201d.<\/p>\n The separatist leader, 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was shot dead<\/a> outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. Nijjar supported a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state and was designated by India as a \u201cterrorist\u201d in July 2020.<\/p>\n Subsequently, Canada said on Monday that it was \u201cactively pursuing credible allegations\u201d linking Indian government agents to the murder of the Sikh separatist leader.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an emergency statement to the House of Commons that any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen was \u201can unacceptable violation of our sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n Ottawa also expelled India\u2019s top intelligence agent and accused it of a role in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader.<\/p>\n In response, India said today it had expelled a Canadian diplomat with five days\u2019 notice to leave the country.<\/p>\n Earlier, New Delhi also dismissed<\/a> the Canadian accusation as \u201cabsurd and motivated\u201d and urged it instead to take legal action against anti-Indian elements operating from its soil.<\/p>\n Speaking to the media in Lahore today, PPP Chairman and ex-foreign minister Bilawal said the interim Foreign Office should take notice of the episode and issue a \u201cclear\u201d statement.<\/p>\n Canada had levelled a \u201cbig allegation\u201d against India, he noted, adding that India had been \u201cexposed before the world\u201d.<\/p>\n He further stated: \u201cTill when the international community, particularly our friends in the West, will continue to ignore such events involving India. It is time for the international community to accept that India has become a rogue Hindutva terrorist state.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have not only conducted terrorism in [occupied] Kashmir, not only we in Pakistan have caught their spies involved in terrorism in our country, but they have now been caught violating the sovereignty of a Nato-member state.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not only a violation of Canadian sovereignty. This is [also] a violation of international law and international norms. And the PPP calls \u2014 but Pakistan should call on the international community to stand with the people of Canada and highlight the atrocities of the religio-fascist that is today\u2019s India.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not the first instance of Bilawal using strong words of criticism for the Indian leadership.<\/p>\n In December last year, while he was the foreign minister, Bilawal had called<\/a> the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi \u201cthe butcher of Gujarat\u201d \u2014 a reference to 2002 Gujarat riots<\/a>.<\/p>\n He had made these statements while addressing the media at a UN briefing room in New York, minutes after his Indian counterpart accused Pakistan of perpetuating terrorism and sheltering Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n In May this year, he became the first foreign minister<\/a> from Pakistan to visit India in over a decade, to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Conference in Goa.<\/p>\n