The Financial Times broke the story on Wednesday. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual national who is Canadian and American and has been labeled a terrorist by the Indian government, was the target of the plot.
Citing unnamed sources, the Financial Times reported that “U.S. authorities thwarted” the murderous plot and “issued a warning to India’s government over concerns it was involved in the plot.”
In a statement sent to CBS News on Wednesday, the NSC stated that it was handling the situation “with the utmost seriousness.”
When questioned about the FT report, NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson stated in the statement, “It has been raised by the U.S. Government with the Indian Government, including at the senior-most levels.”
“Indian counterparts expressed surprise and concern. They stated that activity of this nature was not their policy. Based on discussion with senior U.S. government officials, we understand the Indian government is further investigating this issue and will have more to say about it in the coming days,” Watson said. She added that the Biden administration “conveyed our expectation that anyone deemed responsible should be held accountable.”
Although Pannun was born in Punjab, a region of India with a large Sikh population, he left his native land decades ago. He is the leader of Sikhs for Justice, an organization he founded in 2007 to push for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh state to be split off from India. The organization is based in New York.
2019 saw the Indian government declare Pannun a terrorist and ban his organization for “anti-Indian activities.” The National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s top counterterrorism agency, filed a new case against Pannun for recent social media posts in which he urged Sikhs to cease flying Air India, just two days before the Financial Times report on the purported murder plot.
Although he did not explain why, he claimed in one video that passengers‘ “lives could be in danger” if they decided to travel on India’s national carrier.
It was unclear, according to the Financial Times, “whether the [U.S.] protest in New Delhi led the plotters to abandon their plan” or whether American law enforcement had stepped in to thwart the scheme.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Indian government stated that it was taking seriously the “shared inputs” that American officials had made regarding shared security concerns.
The official statement is as follows:
The official spokesperson, Shri Arindam Bagchi, responded to questions from the media regarding reports of talks between the United States and India regarding security issues.
Recent talks between the US and India on security cooperation involved some input from the US side regarding connections between terrorists, gun runners, organized crime, and other groups. Both nations are concerned about the inputs and have decided to take the appropriate corrective action.
2. Since such inputs affect our own national security interests as well, India takes them seriously.
3. Relevant departments are already looking into issues in relation to US inputs.
“The U.S. side shared some inputs pertaining to the nexus between organized criminals, gun runners, terrorists, and others during the course of recent discussions on India-U.S. security cooperation. The inputs are a cause of concern for both countries, and they decided to take necessary follow-up action,” an official from India’s foreign affairs ministry, Arindam Bagchi, said in the statement.
“India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our own national security interests as well,” he stated.
According to the FT report, U.S. federal prosecutors have filed a sealed indictment against at least one of the plot’s suspects.
Two months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed there was “credible” evidence linking the Indian government to the killing of another Sikh separatist leader in Canada, the alleged plot against Pannun was revealed. India has adamantly denied any involvement in the murder.
Following the June 18 shooting death of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was a fervent advocate of an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia, Trudeau stated in Parliament that Canadian intelligence agencies have been investigating the claims.
“Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen,” Trudeau stated in Parliament on Monday.
Speaking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-20 last week, Trudeau stated that he brought up the connection between Nijjar’s murder and the Indian government “in no uncertain terms,” adding that “any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
The head of Indian intelligence in Canada has been expelled as a result, according to Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly. “If proven true, this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other,” Joly stated. “As a consequence, we have expelled a top Indian diplomat.”
Following the June 18 shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, by unidentified gunmen, Trudeau’s claim that India was involved sparked a significant diplomatic spat between the two countries.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it “critical that the Canadian investigation proceed,” adding that it was “important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation.” The Biden administration expressed its “deep concern” about Trudeau’s allegations that India was involved in the killing.
According to the Sikh leader, Pannun, who had known Nijjar for twenty years, regarded him as his “younger brother” and vowed to “avenge” his death in July.
