(Web Desk) – The Indian government has rejected The Washington Post report naming an official of its spy agency for plotting the killing of a US-based Sikh separatist leader as an “unwarranted and unsubstantiated” accusation.
The report mentioned that US intelligence agencies have assessed that the plan to hire a hit team to assassinate Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — which was ultimately thwarted — was approved by Samant Goel, the chief of the Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) at the time.
Vikram Yadav, a RAW officer who was linked to the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in June 2023, handled the plan to kill Pannun and gave instructions to a hired assassin, said the report — which the Post said was based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former senior security officials in Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, India and the United States.
“The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday in a press conference.
“There is an ongoing investigation of the high-level committee set up by the government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists, and others’ speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful,” he said.
It may be recalled that in November, a senior Biden administration official said the US had thwarted a plot to kill Sikh leader Pannun while announcing charges against an Indian man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder.
US authorities raised the issue with officials at the highest level in New Delhi, expressing concerns that the Indian government was involved in it, a statement from the White House said on November 22.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the White House said that it considered the reported role of the Indian spying agency in the assassination plots in Canada and the US as a "serious matter," with spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre telling reporters, “We’re taking that very, very seriously. We’re going to continue to raise our concerns.”
India has designated Pannun as a terrorist for his alleged involvement in the Sikh separatist movement demanding that an independent state of Khalistan be carved out of India.