India has asked the US to list a Sikh separatist group as a terrorist organisation, an Indian government source said on Tuesday, more than a year after the US said it had foiled a plot with Indian links to kill a leader of the group in the US.<\/p>\n
Washington went public about the plot in November 2023 and later charged a former Indian spy service officer with directing the plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canada citizen and the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), in an episode that tested growing India-US friendship.<\/p>\n
India denied any official connection to the plot, set up a panel to probe Washington\u2019s accusations and said in January that the panel had recommended legal action against an unnamed person.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s request to the US to list SFJ as a terrorist group came during talks between Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and visiting US national intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard, said the Indian government source, who declined to be identified as the discussions were confidential.<\/p>\n
Indian media outlets have also reported the request.<\/p>\n
Formed in 2007, SFJ holds referendums to advocate for a separate state for Sikhs called Khalistan in Hindu-majority India.<\/p>\n
SFJ was labelled an \u201cunlawful association\u201d by India in 2019, citing its support for extremist and secessionist activities, and Pannun was listed as an \u201cindividual terrorist\u201d in 2020.<\/p>\n
India has had a diplomatic dispute with Canada over the June 2023 killing of another Sikh separatist there.<\/p>\n
SFJ has rejected New Delhi\u2019s accusations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is the terrorist? Is it SFJ, which is peacefully and democratically organising the Global Khalistan Referendum to liberate Punjab from Indian occupation?\u201d Pannun said in a statement shared with Reuters on Tuesday, referring to the home state of Sikhs in India.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr is it (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi\u2019s India, which engages in violent transnational repression and hires hitmen to assassinate Khalistan Referendum organisers?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
An Indian defence ministry spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n
A US Embassy spokesperson said they did not have anything to add beyond a statement about the talks between Singh and Gabbard issued by India\u2019s defence ministry on Monday, which mentioned deepening security ties but made no mention of SFJ.<\/p>\n
Gabbard\u2019s team and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.<\/p>\n
At a geopolitics conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Gabbard said that during her trip she\u2019d heard from her Indian counterparts \u201cabout the very serious concerns that you have here for your own security interests\u201d, without elaborating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India has asked the US to list a Sikh separatist group as a terrorist organisation, an Indian government source said on Tuesday, more than a year after the US said it had foiled a plot with Indian links to kill a leader of the group in the US. Washington went public about the plot in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6978,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976\/revisions\/6978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}