NEW DELHI - India's foreign ministry said on Saturday that it had lodged a strong protest with Canada for linking India's home minister to alleged plots against Sikh separatists there and accused Ottawa of spying on Indian consular staff.

The Washington Post newspaper first reported that Canadian officials alleged Amit Shah, considered the number two in the Modi government, was behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.

Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that he told the U.S.-based newspaper that Shah was behind the plots.

"It was conveyed in a note that the government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union Home Minister of India," foreign ministry's spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a press conference in New Delhi.

  - Reuters