Bangkok Post

Delhi denies part in plot to kill activist

NEW DELHI: India has dismissed a Washington Post report alleging senior members of the country’s intelligen­ce agency approved a plot to kill a USbased Sikh activist.

The newspaper “makes unwarrante­d and unsubstant­iated imputation­s of a serious matter,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, said in a statement yesterday. A high-level committee set up by the government is investigat­ing the matter and the “speculativ­e and irresponsi­ble” comments aren’t helpful, he said.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that the former head of Research and Analysis Wing, India’s spy agency, and other senior ranking officials, had approved the alleged plan to kill a Sikh activist on American soil last year. The report was based on interviews with several officials in the

US, India and elsewhere who were not identified.

India’s investigat­ion committee, which hasn’t made its findings public yet, found rogue operatives not authorized by the government were involved in the plot, Bloomberg News has previously reported.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the intended victim in the US plot, is designated a terrorist by India for his involvemen­t in a Sikh separatist movement seeking an independen­t state of Khalistan.

US intelligen­ce agencies also tentativel­y found that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national security adviser was probably aware of RAW’s plan, although officials told the newspaper there was no smoking gun evidence that’s emerged.

In its report, the Post named the agent who allegedly directed the assassinat­ion, as well as the chief of RAW at the time and Mr Modi’s security adviser. The newspaper wasn’t able to contact the agent, and the other two people didn’t respond to calls or text messages, it said.

News of the alleged plot against Mr

Pannun, which US officials said was thwarted, followed the June shooting death in Canada of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. That operation was also linked to the RAW, the Post reported. India has described both men as terrorists.

So far, only one person had been publicly charged in connection with the alleged plot against Mr Pannun: Nikhil Gupta, an alleged middleman who was tasked with hiring a contract killer to assassinat­e Mr Pannun, according to a US indictment. Mr Gupta, an Indian national, was arrested in Prague last year and US officials are seeking his extraditio­n.

News of the alleged plot against Mr Pannun have presented a challenge for Biden administra­tion officials, who have been working to cultivate India as a counterwei­ght to China.