US authorities have reportedly thwarted a plot to kill Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. Officials are also believed to have issued a warning to India about its possible role in the matter. The development comes mere days after the National Investigation Agency booked him for threatening Air India passengers.
According to a Financial Times report citing unnamed sources, US federal prosecutors have also filed a sealed indictment against at least one alleged perpetrator of the plot. The publication cited one person familiar with the matter to add that one person charged in the indictment is believed to have left the US.
It however remains unclear whether the would-be assailants abandoned their plan due to recent protests in New Delhi. Alternatively, the FBI may have intervened to foil a scheme that was already in motion.
“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. He however declined to tell the publication whether US authorities had warned him about any such plot.
The report also comes two months after Canada claimed there were “credible allegations” linking the Indian government to the killing of another Sikh separatist leader. Hardeep Singh Nijjar had been gunned down by unknown assailants in a Vancouver suburb in June this year.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s assertions – dubbed ‘absurd’ by India – had also led to the recall of 41 out of 62 diplomats in India and a pause on electronic visa services till Wednesday.
