White House warned India over concerns after thwarted assassination plot of Sikh Separatist in U.S.

[essentialsaltes]

The Biden administration this summer warned New Delhi that it had intelligence suggesting the Indian government was involved in a conspiracy to kill a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil, according to U.S. officials.

The plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen, was thwarted, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. But the White House is maintaining pressure on the Indian government to investigate the alleged targeting of Pannun, who heads a U.S.-based group advocating for an independent Sikh state, a White House official said.

The thorny geopolitical conversation comes in the wake of disturbingly similar allegations that have threatened to upend Canada-India relations. In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused “agents of the Indian government” of involvement in the slaying of a Sikh separatist, who was a Canadian citizen, in British Columbia.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs called the allegations “unsubstantiated.” Ottawa and Delhi undertook tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions. Canada’s investigation into the slaying continues.

 

[rambot]

Yeah....Modi (from India right?) has got dirty hands I'd say.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Top U.S. intelligence officials demanded India probe assassination plot​

CIA Director William J. Burns flew to India in August and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines followed in October, said the officials, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors expect to file a new indictment against an Indian national charged in June with paying a hit man to kill the Sikh separatist, who is both a U.S. and Canadian citizen, according to people familiar with the matter.

The charges against Nikhil Gupta, which will be lodged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, relate to a murder-for-hire plot targeting Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice, a group that advocates the creation of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan within India. Gupta allegedly conspired with a number of others, at least one of whom is believed to be an official in India, the people said.

The charges against Gupta, who is not in the United States, will build on a bare-bones indictment, filed in mid-June and unsealed in July

 

[Chesterton]

"Gurpatwant Singh Pannun". See this is the problem with multiculturalism. I share 1/2 citizenship with a guy whose name just cracks me up.

Oh settle down, I'm just kidding. I went to school with a Gurpatwant. He was a great guy.

 

[essentialsaltes]

U.S. prosecutors allege assassination plot of Sikh separatist directed by Indian government employee​

An Indian government employee who described himself as a “senior field officer” responsible for intelligence ordered the assassination of a Sikh separatist in New York City in May, U.S. prosecutors alleged Wednesday. The court filing heightens scrutiny of India’s spy services following similar allegations made by Canadian authorities in September.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that the unnamed Indian government employee agreed, in a deal brokered by Gupta, to pay $100,000 to a purported hit man who was in fact an undercover U.S. law enforcement officer.

The charges against Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic in late June pending extradition to the United States, build on a bare-bones indictment, filed in mid-June and unsealed in July.

The indictment contains chilling details, alleging that the Indian government employee and Gupta had a sweeping plan to kill “so many targets,” as Gupta put it, in Canada and the United States. The operations would be directed from India. Besides the target in New York, at least one other was in California and three were in Canada, according to the filing.

Prosecutors reference the killing of Nijjar in Canada. “Later that evening, just hours after the Nijjar murder, [the Indian government employee] sent Gupta a video clip that showed Nijjar’s bloody body slumped in his vehicle,” it stated.

Gupta replied “that he wished he had personally conducted the killing,” the indictment said.

 

[wing2000]

I would say the Indian government has some explaining to do....

The Justice Department said Wednesday that the unnamed Indian government employee agreed, in a deal brokered by Gupta, to pay $100,000 to a purported hit man who was in fact an undercover U.S. law enforcement officer. On June 19, one day after Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was assassinated in Canada, Gupta told the purported hit man to proceed with the New York murder, explaining that both Sikhs were on the same list of targets, U.S. prosecutors said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/11/29/india-us-assassination-plot-sikh-pannun/

 

[Pommer]

I would say the Indian government has some explaining to do....

The Justice Department said Wednesday that the unnamed Indian government employee agreed, in a deal brokered by Gupta, to pay $100,000 to a purported hit man who was in fact an undercover U.S. law enforcement officer. On June 19, one day after Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was assassinated in Canada, Gupta told the purported hit man to proceed with the New York murder, explaining that both Sikhs were on the same list of targets, U.S. prosecutors said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/11/29/india-us-assassination-plot-sikh-pannun/

“Rouge agent”; “not authorized“; “coffee boy”.