A protester holds a banner depicting Gurpatwant Singh Pannun during a demonstration, in New Delhi, India, on Sept. 24.Photographer: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
By Iain Marlow and Laura Dhillon Kane
November 22, 2023 at 7:37 PM GMT+8
Updated on November 23, 2023 at 4:37 AM GMT+8
The Biden administration has raised allegations with top officials in New Delhi that India was involved in a thwarted plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist living in America, adding a new source of friction in ties between the two nations.
The issue is being treated “with utmost seriousness,” Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council said in a statement Wednesday. “It has been raised by the US government with the Indian government, including at the senior-most levels,” she said.
Indian officials, who vigorously denied earlier Canadian accusations of involvement in targeting Sikh separatists abroad, “expressed surprise and concern” about the allegations, Watson said. She said the White House believes the Indian government is now investigating the issue and “will have more to say about it” in the days ahead. “We have conveyed our expectation that anyone deemed responsible should be held accountable,” she said.
The White House statement comes after the Financial Times reported that the US stopped a plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist living in America and warned the Indian government it was concerned about its involvement in the planned killing, citing people familiar with the matter it didn’t identify.
India’s Response
In a statement, India’s foreign ministry said the US side has “shared some inputs” about terrorists and organized criminals that were a “cause of concern for both countries and they decided to take necessary follow-up action.” Indian officials have repeatedly accused Sikh separatist organizers abroad of being terrorists or part of organized criminal gangs. India’s “relevant departments” were looking into the issue, the foreign ministry added.
If true, the development will place renewed focus on allegations of Indian government involvement in targeted overseas killings. In June, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of Indian government involvement in the shooting death in Vancouver of Canadian Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar — setting off a diplomatic firestorm between Ottawa and New Delhi.
India has denied any involvement in that killing, but the allegations put the US in an awkward position. The Biden administration has been muted in its criticism of the Modi government over its alleged role, seeing India as an increasingly important strategic partner in the region as it works to counter China’s influence.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen, was the target of the latest conspiracy, the FT reported. Pannun is general counsel of Sikhs for Justice, an organization that advocates for an independent Sikh state known as “Khalistan” to be carved out of India.
Pannun is a key organizer of nonbinding referendums calling for a separate Sikh state that have been held in countries with large Indian diasporas, including Canada, the UK and Australia. An American phase of the voting will begin Jan. 28 in San Francisco, he said in an email to Bloomberg.
“India wants to kill me for running the referendum campaign,” he said. “India’s transnational terrorism has become a direct challenge to the sovereignty of the United States.”
US federal prosecutors have filed a sealed indictment against at least one alleged participant in the assassination plot in New York district court, and prosecutors were debating whether to unseal the indictment, according to the FT.
The US Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Pannun said in his statement that Nijjar’s murder and the reported threat to his life represent challenges to the self-determination of Canada and the US.
“I trust that the Biden administration is more than capable to handle any such challenge,” he said.
