WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: The United States is treating a reported plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil with utmost seriousness and has raised the issue with the Indian government “at the senior-most levels”, the White House said on Wednesday (Nov 22).
The Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that US authorities thwarted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist in the United States and issued a warning to India over concerns the government in New Delhi was involved.
The paper identified Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who says he is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, as the target of the foiled plot.
The report comes two months after Canada said there were “credible” allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of a Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a Vancouver suburb, something India has rejected.
India’s anti-terror agency filed a case against Pannun on Monday stating that he warned flag carrier Air India passengers in video messages shared on social media this month that their lives were in danger.
Asked about the FT report, White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Indian counterparts had “expressed surprise and concern” and “stated that activity of this nature was not their policy”.
“We understand the Indian government is further investigating this issue and will have more to say about it in the coming days. We have conveyed our expectation that anyone deemed responsible should be held accountable,” she said.
The issue is a highly delicate one for the Biden administration, which has been working to develop close relations with India given shared concerns about China’s rising power.
India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said when asked about the FT report that Washington had shared “some inputs” that were being “examined by “relevant department”.
Bagchi said the inputs pertained to the “nexus between organized criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others”.
“India takes such inputs seriously since it impinges on our own national security interests as well,” he said.
The Financial Times said its sources did not say if the US protest to India resulted in the plot being abandoned, or if it was foiled by the FBI. It said the protest was registered after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed on a state visit by President Joe Biden in June.
Apart from the diplomatic warning to India, U.S. federal prosecutors have also filed a sealed indictment against at least one suspect in a New York district court, the FT said.
The US Justice Department declined to comment.