WASHINGTON: The United States (US) has charged an Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav for allegedly directing a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City, western media reported.
This development suggests that India has become a hub for global terrorism. The FBI has also included the name of Yadav to the list of most wanted criminals and offenders. Western media reported that he introduced himself as a senior intelligence officer. US press reported that he is an official of India’s intelligence agency. He also worked in India’s Central Reserve Force, which is a largest para-military force in India. Yadav also commanded a 135-men company as “Assistant Commandant” there. He took training in counter intelligence, battle craft, and paratrooping.
The US Justice Department said that Yadav had hatched the conspiracy and prepared the plot in India and ordered Gupta to hire assassins to kill the head of Sikhs for Justice, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu. Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic and handed over to the US in June. Indian government had declared the Sikh leader as terrorist.
The US Justice Department indictment has mentioned Yadav as officer in India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy service, according to Reuters news agency. The United States has alleged that Indian agents were involved in an attempted murder plot against Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen.
FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that the FBI will not tolerate action of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those living in the United States for exercising their constitutionally protected rights.
The indictment has alleged that start in May 2023, Yadav, described as an employee of the Indian government at the time, worked together with others people in India and abroad to direct a plot against Pannun.
The US Justice Department described Pannun as a political activist, an advocate for a separate homeland for Sikhs and a critic of the Indian government. Sikh community demand an independent country known as Khalistan to be carved out of India. An insurgency in India from 1980s to 1990s killed tens of thousands, Reuters reported.
According to the indictment, Yadav had hired an Indian citizen named Nikhil Gupta whom the US Justice Department has earlier charged with attempting to arrange the murder of Pannun at the behest of the Indian intelligence official.
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Yadav recruited Gupta “to orchestrate the assassination of the victim in the US,” the indictment, registered in the court in Manhattan, stated. The indictment has charged Yadav with “murder-for-hire and money laundering.”
Pannun has welcomed the indictment of Yadav, but described him as a “mid-tier soldier” who the Sikh leader said was assigned by Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and then RAW Chief Samant Goel as part of extremist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal to dismantle and target Sikh separatism, according to Reuters.
The US had been pushing India to look into the US Justice Department’s statement that an Indian intelligence official — now identified as Yadav — directed plans to kill Pannun. The United State case is not the only example of India’s alleged targeting of Sikh leaders and activists on foreign soil.
Recently, Canada on Monday expelled Indian diplomats, connecting them to the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
The US Justice Department stated that Pannun and Nijjar were associates, and said that Gupta, who was hired by Yadav, felt that following Nijjar’s assassination in Canada, there was “now no need to wait” on murder Pannun. However, the plot against Sikh leader Pannun was thwarted by authorities in the US.
