The Indian foreign minister announced that Ottawa is showing a "obsession" with its investigation into the possibility of India's involvement in the assassination of a Sikh leader in western Canada, after three men were arrested on Friday, suspected of being involved in the murder.

The Canadian police arrested three Indians in their twenties on Friday, suspected of belonging to the team that assassinated Sikh leader Hardip Singh Nijjar in Vancouver last year.

The Canadian security forces confirmed that they are investigating "the potential existence of links to the Indian government," according to Agence France-Presse.

The Indian news agency "Press Trust" quoted Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar as saying, on Saturday, "That accusing India is a political obsession in Canada."

Nijjar emigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015. He was an advocate for establishing a separate Sikh state from India called "Khalistan."

He was wanted by the Indian authorities on charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. He was killed in June 2023 by masked attackers in a Sikh temple parking lot near Vancouver on Canada's west coast.

The case plunged Canada and India into a serious diplomatic crisis last fall, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hinted at the Indian government's involvement in the assassination. New Delhi described the accusations as "absurd."

A month later, the Canadian government was forced to recall dozens of its diplomats in India after New Delhi threatened to revoke their diplomatic immunity.

Thousands of people were killed in the 1980s during a separatist insurgency aimed at creating a homeland for Sikhs called "Khalistan," which was met with severe suppression by Indian forces.

The momentum of this movement has decreased in Indian territories, but it still has the support of a minority of Sikhs in the diaspora, particularly in Canada, which has the largest Sikh community outside of India, numbering 770,000.

Jaishankar clarified that New Delhi seeks to persuade Ottawa not to grant Sikh separatists visas or any political legitimacy because they "cause problems for (Canada), for us, and for our diplomatic relations."

He added that Canada "does not share with us any evidence in some cases, and the police authorities do not cooperate with us."