Canada announced on Thursday that it had to repatriate 41 diplomats in India after New Delhi threatened to strip them of diplomatic immunity amid a crisis between the two countries, AFP reported.

“We have taken the decision to arrange for the safe departure of these 41 diplomats and their families,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said, adding that 21 Canadian diplomats remained in India.

India recently suspended new visas for Canadian citizens and asked the government in Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country, sharply escalating a row sparked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s accusations that New Delhi’s services were involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist. Canada, Reuters reports.

India’s foreign ministry said Ottawa had not provided any specific information on Trudeau’s allegations, although authorities in New Delhi were prepared to look into them if provided.

India “wants to consider any concrete information, we have conveyed it to the Canadian side, we have clarified it, but we have not received any concrete information yet,” said an Indian foreign ministry spokesman.

According to Indian government data, Canada is the fourth largest source of foreign tourists, with 350,000 visitors in 2019, a number that has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unprecedented tensions between the two G20 countries, a group of the world’s most powerful economies, flared after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa was investigating “credible allegations” of the possible involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Hardeep Singh. A Sikh leader in June in the province of British Columbia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has denied any involvement in the alleged murder.

The two countries, whose relations have been strained in recent years over the Sikh separatist issue, have since announced the expulsion of senior diplomats and issued travel advisories.