The Indian intelligence service is said to have played a major part in two murder plans in the United States and Canada, according to the White House.
According to a revelation published in The Washington Post, an Indian intelligence agency officer played a direct role in the abortive attempt to kill a US citizen who happens to be one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most outspoken opponents in the US. According to the report, the cop was also engaged in the Sikh activist’s other shooting killing in Canada in June of last year.
The Washington Post article contained “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter,” according to India’s foreign ministry, and New Delhi is looking into the matter.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal issued a statement saying, “Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful.”
White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “This is a serious matter, and we’re taking that very, very seriously.” “We will not stop voicing our concerns.”
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the US and Canada, was the target of an attempted murder plan, according to US officials in November. The plot was allegedly led by an officer in the Indian government.
Concerned about the connection, India distanced itself from the scheme and announced that it will look into the US concerns officially. It also promised to take “necessary follow-up action” based on the recommendations of a panel that was constituted on November 18.
General Counsel Pannun works for Sikhs for Justice, an organization that India designated as a “unlawful association” in 2019 due to its radical activities. India subsequently designated Pannun as a “individual terrorist” in 2020.
Given their shared concerns about China’s rising influence, India and the Biden administration in the US are trying to forge tighter connections, therefore both parties must tread carefully on this topic.
The US conspiracy was revealed two months after Canada declared it was investigating plausible claims that may have Indian agents involved in the June suburban Vancouver killing of another Sikh rebel, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
India vehemently denied Ottawa’s allegations.
The Foreign Office (FO) declared earlier this month that a concerted international response was necessary to address the extrajudicial and extraterritorial assassination network in India, which was now considered a “global phenomenon.”
The declaration was released in response to a report by The Guardian alleging that the Indian government was executing terrorists in Pakistan as part of a larger plan to eradicate terrorists operating abroad.
The report stated that it “shed new light on how India’s foreign intelligence agency allegedly began to carry out assassinations abroad as part of an emboldened approach to national security after 2019” and cited intelligence officials from both nations as well as documents shared by Pakistani investigators.
In a press conference on January 25, Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi stated that there was “credible evidence” linking Indian agents to the murders of two Pakistani citizens in Sialkot and Rawalakot.
