Plot to kill Sikh leader on American soil thwarted

LONDON: The US authorities thwarted an Indian conspiracy to assassinate pro-Khalistan leader of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil and issued a warning to India’s government over concerns it was involved in the plot, according to multiple people familiar with the case who spoke to the Financial Times (FT).

In a shocking story, the FT revealed that the target of the Indian plot was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen, who was general counsel for Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a US-based group that is part of a movement pushing for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan. The intelligence people familiar with the case, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the intelligence that prompted the warning, told FT the Indian government was behind the plot to kill Pannun, who had been running a worldwide campaign called Khalistan Referendum, in which over 1.3 million Sikhs have voted so far.

The US sources did not tell the FT whether the protest to New Delhi led the plotters to abandon their plan, or whether the FBI intervened and foiled a scheme already in motion. The US informed some allies about the plot following the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh separatist killed in Vancouver in June.

In September, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking New Delhi to Nijjar’s fatal shooting.

The FT said that one person familiar with the situation said the US protest was issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a high-profile state visit to Washington in June. The FT revealed that separate from the diplomatic warning, the US federal prosecutors filed a sealed indictment against at least one alleged perpetrator of the plot in a New York district court, according to people familiar with the case.

The US Justice Department is debating whether to unseal the indictment and make the allegations public or wait until Canada finishes its investigation into Nijjar’s murder, said the paper.

Washington shared details of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun case with a wider group of allies after Trudeau went public with details of the Vancouver killing, the combination of which sparked concern among allies about a possible pattern of behaviour.

Contacted by the Financial Times, Pannun declined to say whether the US authorities had warned him about the plot, saying he would “let the US government respond to the issue of threats to my life on American soil from the Indian operatives”. “The threat to an American citizen on American soil is a challenge to America’s sovereignty, and I trust that the Biden administration is more than capable to handle any such challenge,” Pannun told the FT.

Pannun asked Indian officials this month by issuing a video in which he warned Sikhs not to fly on Air India because it would be “life threatening”.

He told the FT he was not making a violent threat against the airline. Washington has urged India to help the Canadian investigation, but has avoided being too critical of New Delhi in public over the Vancouver case.

The SFJ has given a call to picket Air India flights in Toronto and Vancouver on Dec 1. The group has announced that the American phase of Khalistan Referendum will be launched on Jan 28, 2024 from San Francisco.

Several people familiar with the debate inside the Biden administration told the FT officials were aware that any public disclosure of the US plot, and Washington’s protest to New Delhi, would renew questions about India’s reliability as a trusted partner, said the FT.