The US government confirmed on Wednesday that it had foiled a plot to assassinate one of the leaders of the Sikh separatist movement, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on US soil and accused the Indian government of being involved in the affair: The news was was already expected published last week by the Financial Times, but the US authorities had not yet commented on it. Pannun is a US and Canadian citizen and is classified as a terrorist by the Indian government.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an Indian government official ordered the killing of Pannun for $100,000 from Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national whom U.S. newspapers describe as an international arms and drug trafficker. However, in an attempt to find a contract killer, Gupta contacted an undercover agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the US federal agency that deals with the fight against the production and trafficking of drugs: at the end of June, he was therefore arrested in the Czech Republic Republic and was extradited to the United States, where he is now being tried for contract killing. The Indian government official who allegedly ordered the killing has not been named or formally charged.
India launched an internal investigation into the incident after being urged to do so by the highest officials of the American state, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and President Joe Biden himself. A few months ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being involved in the murder of another Sikh separatist on Canadian soil.
– Also read: Who are the Sikh separatists at the center of the India-Canada dispute?
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