Toronto, Oct. 22 -- India's high commissioner to Ottawa Dinesh Patnaik has called into question the safety of its citizens in Canada, pointing to the reality that he himself requires protection. "I find it strange that a High Commissioner here has to be under protection," he said, adding, "I should not be under protection in a country like this if you think it's safe." His remarks were part of an interview with the network CTV and aired on Sunday, a day after the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ "picketed" his official residence for a 12-hour period. A senior Indian official told the Hindustan Times that India's concerns over the High Commissioner's safety over the matter and his address being plastered all over social media, had been conveyed to the Canadian government. "Is Canada safe to Indians here? Is Canada safe in itself? Because Canada cannot look at this situation as an Indian problem. It's a Canadian problem. There are Canadians who are creating this problem," Patnaik said, though he never mentioned pro-Khalistan elements operating the country. He pointed to Kap's Cafe, the restaurant owned by Indian celebrity Kapil Sharma being fired at for a third in 100 days last week. "Indians and South Asians are feeling unsafe here. Do we need to target that?" he asked. He underscored the other reality that Canada's High Commissioner in New Delhi doesn't need similar protection. Senior Indian officials, including the High Commissioner, were provided with enhanced diplomatic security in 2023 after they were targeted in posters by SFJ, following the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 that year. Three months later, relations between India and Canada cratered after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons that there were "credible allegations" of a potential link between Indian agents and the murder. In October last year, matters worsened as India withdrew six diplomats and officials after Canadian authorities asked New Delhi to waive their immunity so they could be questioned in connection with violent criminal activity in the country. In retaliation, India expelled six Canadian diplomats. Referring to Trudeau's successor Mark Carney, Patnaik said, "Your new Prime Minister who played a very big role in getting things back to normal." The breakthrough came after Carney held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the margins of the G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis in June. The reset has continued with Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand's visit to India earlier this month and regular meetings are expected to continue. When the interviewer alluded to the relationship being destroyed by Trudeau, Patnaik said, "I don't think any relationship can be destroyed by a single man. It needs a whole eco-system to be destroyed," while adding "it needs a lot of people to build it back." He described the allegations leveled in October last year as "preposterous and absurd." He stressed that India does not engage in extraterritorial action and pro-Khalistan figures in Canada were not targeted. "They never were. I find that very strange that allegations have become evidence," he said, adding that such matters were "in the past now." He referred to the law enforcement and security dialogue between the two countries under which sovereignty, territorial integrity and criminal activities are being discussed. People in both countries, he noted, had to feel "safe." The emphasis is on building back trust, he indicated, as he said, "Both sides lost trust. We lost trust because we felt there was an allegation without substance....