The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has said it would hold a hearing on “alarming rise in transnational repression” in view of an alleged foiled assassination plot against pro-Khalistan terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Pannun is the spokesman of New York-headquartered separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a banned terrorist group in India. Pannun is a designated terrorist under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
On Wednesday, the US Justice Department indicted an Indian citizen, Nikhil Gupta, on “murder-for hire” charges against Pannun. The US indictment claims that Gupta was directed to carry out the hit job by an Indian government official.
“The disturbing news of a foiled assassination plot against a U.S. citizen involving Indian government officials further underscores the importance of shedding light on efforts by governments to silence dissenters living abroad,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chief Senator Ben Cardin said in a statement on Thursday.
Cardin also noted in the statement that the US Justice Department indictment was unsealed two months after Canadian officials announced allegations “linking Indian agents to the June murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada”.
The reference is to Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another designated pro-Khalistan terrorist in India.
Cardin stated that "governments had been dispatching assassins and kidnappers or using international criminal networks to abduct, harass, intimidate, and harm dissidents, journalists, and other individuals – far beyond their borders".
He added that the Senate committee would be examining the “scope of global transnational repression” and how the US could counter the “pernicious threat”, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated that the Biden administration was taking the charges on Indian involvement in Pannun’s killing “very seriously”.
“The government announced today that it was conducting an investigation. And that's good and appropriate, and we look forward to seeing the results,” Blinken told reporters during his visit to Tel Aviv.
India’s Response to US Allegations
The Indian government has formed a “high-level enquiry” committee to look into American allegations of a foiled assassination plot.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesman Arindam Bagchi told a briefing in New Delhi on Friday that allegations linking Gupta to an Indian official were a “matter of concern”.
“We have said, and let me reiterate, that this is also contrary to government policy. The nexus between organized crime, trafficking, gun running, and extremists at an international level is a serious issue for law enforcement agencies and organizations to consider, and it is precisely for that reason that a high-level enquiry committee has been constituted, and we will obviously be guided by its results,” Bagchi stated.