Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun – Indian Defense Research Wing

SOURCE: Bloomberg

US Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the target of a foiled ‘assassination plot’ allegedly planned by India, said intelligence agents in New Delhi still want him dead and the Biden administration’s ‘quiet diplomacy’ is not doing it has succeeded in deterring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. “The risk has increased,” Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said in an interview at his office in New York. “The Modi regime has faced no consequences. They have not been held accountable.

Why would they stop?” The Indian government has branded him a terrorist and declared that his group Sikhs for Justice – which advocates the breakaway of the Sikh nation of Khalistan from the Indian state of Punjab – is an “unlawful organization” that poses a threat to Indian sovereignty. Pannun’s case first disrupted US-India relations late last year.

At that time, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York alleging that Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, was recruited by an Indian government official – known as “CC-1” – to allow Pannun murder as part of a murder case. broader plan to kill overseas activists. At the time, Pannun’s group organized unofficial Khalistan referendums among Indian diaspora communities. Gupta has pleaded not guilty. India’s foreign ministry declined to comment on Pannun’s claim that he is still being targeted for assassination.

A ministry spokesperson previously said the charges were a “matter of concern”, that the allegations are “contrary to government policy” and that there is a “high-level committee” investigating the matter.

Months earlier, a Sikh separatist named Hardeep Singh Nijjar — a longtime associate of Pannun — was killed in Canada in a shooting that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed on India, which dismissed the allegations as “absurd.” But the U.S. assassination plot to kill Pannun was foiled, according to the indictment, when an Indian national, operating under the direction of the Indian agent, accidentally hired an undercover U.S. agent posing as a potential assassin. Indian and US security services are in contact and New Delhi continues to investigate the alleged assassination plot, Vikram Misri, India’s foreign minister, recently told reporters in New Delhi.

The case was embarrassing for the Biden administration, which continued to take Modi to court in an effort to counterbalance China. “The question this episode raises is whether we are really aligned with this Indian government, and to what extent the tendency to want to achieve a broader strategic goal might lead us to overlook the actually highly transactional nature of the relationship see the head. ” said Daniel Markey, a former State Department official who now works at the U.S. Institute for Peace. The case also represents a clash of geopolitical, criminal and constitutional considerations. India takes separatist movements seriously, given the militant history of the Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s and the ongoing political violence in Kashmir. India blames overseas groups for fueling instability and possible violence at home.

Pannun, a former Wall Street banker turned human rights lawyer, now has five guards to protect him and search the bags of even his close friends and associates, he said. “I can only continue fighting for the liberation of Punjab if I stay alive,” he said. “You hold a peaceful and democratic referendum, you sit somewhere – and India has the means, the powers, the weapons and the money to kill you. You have to make sure you survive and continue the campaign.” In a recent twist, Pannun has filed a civil case in the US seeking restitution against senior Indian officials he claims are responsible for the assassination attempt. These allegations are “baseless” and “baseless,” Foreign Minister Misri said. In Canada, where India expelled dozens of diplomats after Trudeau accused India, the government is sticking to its accusation that India was behind Nijjar’s killing. “That is the ultimate violation of our country’s sovereignty,” Secretary of State Melanie Joly told Bloomberg in an interview on September 30. “That shouldn’t happen again.”

‘Terrorism’ problem

“For India, the issue is terrorism,” said Aparna Pande, a researcher at the Hudson Institute, who released a report highlighting links between Khalistan groups and Pakistan, which India blames for inciting violence in Kashmir. “India also believes that Western countries have shown tolerance towards groups and individuals considered extremists and terrorists by the Indian government.” Western law enforcement agencies are now trying to balance protecting constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression with what India sees as a move aimed at splitting the country – and which it claims has links to criminal gangs and smuggling.

India also views the Sikh protests outside its consulates and embassies as threatening. Born in Amritsar, India, Pannun came to the US as a student. He made new allegations that his life was still in danger after Sikh separatists in California “sprayed their truck with bullets,” his group said.

The new attack revives concerns among US lawmakers after the original assassination plot prompted some Democratic senators to call on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to mount a strong diplomatic response “regardless of the perpetrator.” Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said it was critical to investigate the California incident and “send a strong message that deters potential future attempts to undermine the values ​​of free speech and protest that we as a nation.” Senior Biden administration officials, including White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, have raised Pannun’s case with Modi’s government. Sullivan said in July that the issue is “sensitive, something we are working on,” but that U.S. efforts “have been effective in my opinion, especially because it is happening behind closed doors.” However, Pannun says that “quiet diplomacy” has not worked “in the last fifteen months” and that “it will not work in the next three years.”