NEW YORK: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday called on India to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia and said Canada would not release its evidence.

Trudeau said on Monday that Ottawa had credible allegations linking Indian government agents to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June, prompting an angry reaction from New Delhi. Nijjar, 45, was a Canadian citizen.

"We're not looking to provoke or cause problems. But we are unequivocal around the importance of the rule of law and unequivocal about the importance of protecting Canadians," Trudeau told a news conference in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

"That's why we call upon the government of India to work with us to establish processes to discover and to uncover the truth of the matter."

Trudeau sidestepped several questions about when Canada might release the evidence it had, saying merely that the decision to share the allegations had not been made lightly.

"As a country with a strong and independent justice system, we allow those justice processes to unfold themselves with the utmost integrity," he said.