U.S. prosecutors allege assassination plot of Sikh separatist directed by Indian government employee
Updated November 29, 2023
Demonstrators
gather outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto on Sept. 25 to protest
the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
(Carlos Osorio/Reuters)
An
Indian government employee who described himself as a “senior field
officer” responsible for intelligence ordered the assassination of a
Sikh separatist in New York City in May, U.S. prosecutors alleged
Wednesday. The court filing heightens scrutiny of India’s spy services
following similar allegations made by Canadian authorities last month.
The government employee, who was not named in the indictment
filed in a federal court in Manhattan, recruited an Indian national
named Nikhil Gupta to hire a hit man to carry out the assassination,
which was foiled by U.S. authorities, according to prosecutors.
The
court filing did not name the victim, but senior Biden administration
officials say the target was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel
for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice, a group that advocates the
creation of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan within India.
The
alleged link between the Indian government and the assassination
attempt on U.S. soil has strained ties between the two countries and
prompted the Biden administration to dispatch its top two intelligence
officials to New Delhi to demand the Indian government investigate and
hold to account those responsible, senior administration officials said.
CIA
Director William J. Burns flew to India in August and Director of
National Intelligence Avril Haines followed in October, said the
officials, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The
Justice Department said Wednesday that the unnamed Indian government
employee agreed, in a deal brokered by Gupta, to pay $100,000 to a
purported hit man who was in fact an undercover U.S. law enforcement
officer. On June 19, one day after Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
was assassinated in Canada, Gupta told the purported hit man to proceed
with the New York murder, explaining that both Sikhs were on the same
list of targets, U.S. prosecutors said.
In
a bombshell announcement in September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” that New Delhi was behind
the killing. U.S. law enforcement is working closely with counterparts
in Canada on both matters, officials said.
The charges against Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic pending extradition to the United States, builds on a bare-bones indictment, filed in mid-June and unsealed in July.
In
a statement Wednesday, an Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Arindam
Bagchi, said that India “takes … seriously” the information provided by
the United States and earlier this month set up a “high-level inquiry
committee” to investigate. It did not confirm or deny the existence of
any assassination plot or Indian government involvement.
The thwarting of the assassination attempt and existence of an indictment was first reported by the Financial Times.
The
administration learned of the foiled plot in late July, triggering a
concerted effort to raise the matter with senior Indian government
officials. In early August, national security adviser Jake Sullivan
brought his concerns to his counterpart, Ajit Doval, in person during a
meeting in another country in the region.
“He
underscored that India needed to investigate [the plot] and hold those
responsible, accountable, and that the United States needed an assurance
that this would not happen again,” said a senior administration
official.
Within a week of Sullivan’s meeting, Burns flew to India to deliver the same message to his counterpart, Ravi Sinha. President Biden
himself, in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of
20 summit in September, stressed the seriousness of the issue “and the
potential repercussions for the bilateral relationship were similar
threats to persist,” the official said.
Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, President Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visit Raj
Ghat memorial in New Delhi with other G-20 leaders on Sept. 10. (Kenny
Holston/Pool/Reuters)
Secretary
of State Antony Blinken and Sullivan raised the issue again when
Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar visited Washington in
September after attending the U.N. General Assembly. And in October,
Haines went to India to share information about the plot with the
government to aid its probe, officials said.
“Indian
counterparts expressed surprise and concern” when confronted by the
allegations, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said
last week, when the news of the foiled plan broke. “They stated that
activity of this nature was not their policy.”
Activists
and some U.S. lawmakers have become increasingly concerned about what
they see as an audacious campaign of transnational repression by India
of Sikh separatists in North America.
In
September, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the American Sikh
Congressional Caucus, posted on X that “I’m concerned by reports that
India’s government is targeting Sikh activists abroad” and pledged to
work with local and federal officials to ensure actions are taken to
protect the Sikh community.
Although there is little evidence of widespread pro-separatist sentiment within Punjab,
the Indian state that is home to the majority of the world’s Sikhs,
Modi’s government has frequently alleged that Sikh extremists supported
by Pakistan have fomented unrest and carried out terrorist attacks
inside India.
These
alleged militants, the Indian government argues, have been harbored by
Canada and the United States despite repeated attempts by India to bring
them to justice.
In
a statement to The Washington Post, Pannun claimed “India wants to kill
me for running the Khalistan referendum campaign.” He called the
thwarted attempt on his life “an act of transnational terrorism,” which
is a challenge to … U.S. sovereignty and [a] threat to freedom of speech
and democracy.”
The filing of new charges could complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to deepen strategic ties with India as a counterweight to China. But some analysts say that Washington’s geopolitical courtship of New
Delhi supersedes the concerns it has — at least for now — about the
Indian government’s crackdown on Sikhs and other minorities and Modi’s
tilt toward illiberalism.
“There’s
little to be gained diplomatically from attempting to shame this Indian
government and lots to lose,” said Daniel Markey, a senior adviser on
South Asia at the United States Institute of Peace. The relationship is
fundamentally one of shared interests — such as countering China — not
shared values, he said. Emphasizing the latter “forces the
administration to answer questions that are increasingly uncomfortable.”
But administration officials say they will continue to balance U.S. interests and values.
“India
is an important strategic partner of ours and we are continuing to
pursue the agenda to expand our cooperation,” said a second senior
administration official. “At the same time, this is a serious matter.
And as partners, we expect the Indian government to stop any such
activities in the United States and to cooperate with us as these
investigations proceed.”
Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Canada Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau upon his arrival at Bharat Mandapam convention center for the
G-20 summit in New Delhi on Sept. 9. (Evan Vucci/Pool/Reuters)
The new charges will deepen scrutiny of Modi’s government and its spy service in the wake of Trudeau’s disclosure that he possessed “credible evidence” of New Delhi’s involvement in the assassination of
Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India called the allegations
“absurd” and demanded evidence. Canada said it furnished proof, but has
declined to make it public. Ottawa expelled the station chief for
India’s foreign intelligence service, Pawan Kumar Rai, leading India to
retaliate by expelling a Canadian intelligence officer and forcing the
removal of dozens of diplomats.
The
Indian government has pressured Western countries to crack down on the
movement after supporters of an independent Sikh state stormed India’s
embassy in London and attacked its consulate in San Francisco this year,
say Western diplomats in New Delhi.
A
security guard and police officer stand in front of the Consulate
General of India in San Francisco on March 20 amid protests against the
capture of self-described separatist Amritpal Singh. (Jeff Chiu/AP)
Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh population outside India, and leaders
of the Sikh community for decades have claimed that the Indian
government and its intelligence apparatus are seeking to target
dissidents on Canadian soil with impunity.
Balpreet
Singh Boparai, legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization of Canada,
said he is aware of at least five Sikh advocates, including Nijjar, who
have been warned by Canadian authorities about unspecified threats to
their safety both before and after Nijjar’s killing.
Moninder Singh, a friend of
Nijjar, said Nijjar was visited by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
July 2022. Then in June of this year, he said, Nijjar was scheduled to
meet with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. But a few days
before that meeting, on the evening of June 18, he was gunned down
outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.
One
day after Nijjar’s slaying, Bobby Singh, a Sikh youth activist in
Sacramento, received a call from an FBI agent advising him to take
safety measures, including avoiding public places. When asked where the
threat was coming from, the agent told him “we can’t tell you,” he
recalled.
Two
days later, a threatening text message popped on his iPhone at 1:41
a.m. It said: “Just a head up for you. You’re next in the USA. We have
all tools ready to come fix the problems.”
It closed: “Jai hind” — or “Victory to India.”
That
day, Modi was welcomed to Washington by Biden for a lavish state visit
intended to showcase the two nations’ burgeoning ties. The following
day, Amarjit Singh, a Sikh nationalist from New York, joined a protest
in front of the White House over mounting human rights concerns under
Modi. Inside the White House, Modi and Biden were meeting.
As
he drove back to New York, he recalled, he received a call on his
cellphone. It was an FBI agent warning him of a threat to his life.
Singh, who runs a 24-hour news channel on YouTube for the global Punjabi
community, said he had planned to fly to Canada to attend a “final
prayer” service for Nijjar, a Sikh funeral tradition. Instead, for
several months, he restricted his travel.
Nijjar’s
killing in Canada has shocked Sikh advocates, and the targeting of
Pannun in the United States has compounded the fear and anger. “For us,
this Pannun attempt is a watershed moment,” said Pritpal Singh, founder
of the American Sikh Caucus Committee, who has also received an FBI
warning. “The perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
Ellen
Nakashima is a national security reporter with The Washington Post. She
was a member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning teams, in 2022 for an
investigation of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, in 2018 for
coverage of Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and in 2014 and
for reporting on the hidden scope of government surveillance.
Gerry Shih is the India Bureau Chief for the Washington Post, covering India and neighboring countries. Amanda
Coletta is a Toronto-based correspondent who covers Canada and the
Caribbean for The Washington Post. She previously worked in London,
first at the Economist and then the Wall Street Journal. Twitter