New Delhi: Terming the alleged plot to assasasinate India-designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun a “serious issue”, Donald Lu — the top US diplomat in charge of Central and South Asian affairs, including India — has called on New Delhi to hold “accountable those responsible for this terrible crime”.
He also urged India to work “quickly and transparently” to ensure justice is done in the case.
Lu was testifying before a subcommittee of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the subject of the “Future of Democracy in Pakistan”, when ranking member Dean Phillips (D-Minn) raised a question on the alleged plot to kill Pannun.
“This is a serious issue between the US and India. The Department of Justice has alleged that an Indian citizen at the behest of someone working in the Indian government has attempted to kill an American citizen on American soil. The administration takes this incredibly seriously and has raised it at the highest levels with India,” said Lu in response to Phillips’ question.
Lu added: “We are at the moment working with India to encourage India to hold accountable those responsible for this terrible crime. What we can see is that India itself has announced that they have created a Committee of Inquiry to look into this matter and we ask them to work quickly and transparently to ensure that justice is done.”
In November 2023, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) indicted an Indian citizen — Nikhil Gupta — with murder-for-hire charges in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Pannun. Pannun is the chief of the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), an organisation that supports the secession of the state of Punjab from India and is proscribed in India.
Gupta was arrested by the Czech authorities on 30 June, 2023, based on a request from the US government, for alleged involvement in the attempt to kill Pannun.
A week after the DoJ indictment, the US principal deputy national security advisor (NSA) Jonathan Finer visited India and met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, national security advisor Ajit Doval and foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra. Finer, at the time, said that India-US ties were mature enough to “work through” the differences without “derailing” the larger cooperative agenda.
On 18 September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government was investigating links between agents of the Government of India and the assassination of another Sikh extremist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was gunned down outside a gurudwara in Surrey, British Columbia in June 2023.
Trudeau’s accusations sparked a row, which saw Canada reduce its diplomatic presence in India. New Delhi called Ottawa’s allegations “absurd and motivated” and highlighted that no evidence was shared by Canadian authorities.
(Edited Tikli Basu)
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