The investigation into the alleged plot to assassinate U.S.-based pro-Khalistan advocate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is part of India’s national security interests, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Monday.
Mr. Jaishankar was speaking at a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi. Earlier, U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, in an interview to news agency ANI, had described the alleged plot as an “unacceptable red line”.
“It is something we are investigating as we believe our own national security interests are involved in that investigation,” Mr. Jaishankar said in response to a question about Mr. Garcetti’s comment on the involvement of an Indian official in the alleged assassination plot.
“The position of my government is that in this particular case, there has been certain information provided to us which we are investigating,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
“As and when we have something to say on the investigation we would be very glad to speak about it. At this point, beyond the fact that there is an investigation going on, we have nothing more to say,” he added.
The case of the alleged attempted murder of Pannun — one of the key organisers of an online referendum for a Sikh homeland in Punjab — hit the headlines last year when U.S. authorities accused an Indian government official of plotting the murder on American soil. Subsequently, the Indian side announced that a high-level investigation into the matter was under way.
Mr. Garcetti expressed satisfaction about the Indian investigation and said, “No government or government employee can be involved in the alleged assassination of one of your own citizens... That’s just an unacceptable red line.”
Before the U.S. prosecutors kicked up the Pannun case, the Khalistan issue hit the Canada-India relationship in September 2023 after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian agents of being linked to the assassination of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, Canada in June 2023.
