United States and Canada lash out at India over assassination attempts on Sikh activists
There could be serious friction between Washington and New Delhi after the US accused an Indian agent of leading a plot with the intent to kill an American citizen. The indictment released by the United States Department of Justice also provides new evidence that an unnamed agent ordered the murder of activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
U.S. prosecutors have charged an Indian government agent with directing an assassination attempt on an American citizen on U.S. soil, according to a superseding indictment. released by the Justice Department, revealing new details about alleged Indian attacks on Sikh activists around the world.
According to The Guardian, the indictment unsealed on Wednesday also presents new evidence that an unnamed Indian agent ordered the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh activist who was gunned down outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia ( Canada) in June.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that there were “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government carried out the murder of Nijjar. India has denied these claims, calling them «absurd». and politically motivated.
The US indictment, however, insists there is evidence of a global conspiracy allegedly orchestrated in India to silence and kill outspoken critics of the Indian government who support the creation of an independent Sikh state.
< p>Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the target of the alleged murder plot, told The Guardian that the indictment revealed «a blatant case of transnational terrorism in India», adding that the attempt on his life had only intensified his efforts to hold a symbolic referendum on an independent Sikh Khalistan state.
«If death is the price for holding a referendum in Khalistan, I am ready to pay that price,» he said in a statement. – By first killing Nijjar in Canada and then attempting to kill me on US soil, India under the leadership of [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] has extended its policy of violent suppression of the Sikh movement for the right to self-determination to foreign territories.
Speaking in Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said: «The news coming out of the United States once again underscores what we have been saying all along, which is that India needs to take this seriously.»
The US Justice Department has not named the Indian government official, who is referred to in the indictment as CC-1 and says he previously served in India's Central Reserve Police Force. The Justice Department has charged another man, Nikhil Gupta, 52, with working closely with an Indian agent.
Gupta, an Indian citizen, is described as a “close associate” CC-1 and allegedly described his involvement in international drug and weapons trafficking. He was arrested and taken into custody on June 30 in the Czech Republic and has now been extradited to the United States under a bilateral extradition treaty.
According to the indictment, an Indian government agent working with Gupta and others in India and elsewhere led a plot to kill an American lawyer and political activist living in New York. It is alleged that around May 2023, CC-1 recruited Gupta to organize the “assassination” victim in the US, who was described by prosecutors as «an outspoken critic of the Indian government and heads a US-based organization advocating the secession of Punjab, a northern Indian state that is home to a large Sikh population.»
Financial Times first reported on last week that US authorities foiled a plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil and issued a warning to the Indian government over concerns that it was involved in the plot.
According to the indictment, Gupta, allegedly working at the direction of an Indian agent, contacted a man he believed to be an associate of a criminal for help in hiring a hitman to kill the target.
But this employee was actually a confidential source working on US law enforcement, and the alleged hitman they introduced Gupta to was an undercover US law enforcement officer.
The alleged killer was eventually offered – as part of a deal allegedly brokered by Gupta – $100,000 for killing a subject in New York. As a down payment, Gupta arranged with another employee of the Indian agent (CC-1) to deliver $15,000 to the alleged hitman.
As the story progressed, the Indian agent allegedly regularly asked Gupta for information on how the plan was progressing. Gupta, in turn, provided the Indian agent with CCTV photographs and other materials. Gupta urged the alleged hitman to carry out the murder as soon as possible, but warned him against committing the murder during expected meetings between “senior US and Indian government officials”.
This detail is likely a reference to the prime minister's state visit Indian Minister Narendra Modi in June last year, a high-level meeting at which Joe Biden called the US-India partnership “stronger, closer and more dynamic than at any time in history,” The Guardian believes.
Nijjar, a Canadian activist, was killed by masked gunmen on June 18. Hours later, the indictment alleges, CC-1 sent Gupta a video clip showing Nijjar's bloody body lying in his car, followed by the address of the alleged victim's US home in New York.
Indian The government, as The Guardian notes, has long complained about the presence of Sikh separatist groups outside India, who are campaigning for the creation of an independent Sikh state of Khalistan, which should be separated from India.