How Pannun ‘murder’ plot dominates India, US talks

Khalistan terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun continues to overshadow India-US ties. Days after the US federal prosecutors alleged that an Indian official was involved in a foiled plot to assassinate Pannun on US soil, the matter was discussed in meetings between US and Indian officials. US principal deputy national security advisor Jonathan Finer met NSA Ajit Doval and External Affairs Miniter S Jaishakar in New Delhi on Monday. He also held talks with India’s deputy NSA Vikram Misri and foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra. The alleged foiled murder of Pannun featured in the meetings between Finer and top Indian officials. “Mr Finer acknowledged India’s establishment of a committee of enquiry to investigate lethal plotting in the United States and the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible,” the White House said in a readout. Also read: Could 'plot to kill' Gurpatwant Singh Pannun derail India-US ties? What US deputy NSA discuss with Indian officials Last week, India announced that it had formed an enquiry committee to investigate the information shared by US authorities about the alleged involvement of two Indian nationals – a man named Nikhil Gupta and an unnamed official – in the Pannun “murder plot”. The US secretary of state Antony Blinken had hailed the decision of a high-level probe, calling it “appropriate”. “We look forward to seeing the results,” he had said. At the Global Technology Summit organised by Carnegie India in New Delhi on Monday, Finer was asked about the challenges in India-US ties. “I think the US and India have complicated history. We have not always been wholly aligned… the most important step forward for the US and India is recognising by each side that there is much more that connects us, than what divides us…,” he said, according to a report by The Indian Express. He said that many administrations in the US and India have worked on the relationship to bring us to a point where “we can work through our differences” constructively “without derailing that broader cooperative agenda”.

Good to meet Principal Deputy NSA of the US Jon Finer this afternoon.

Useful exchange of views on the global situation. Discussed taking our bilateral cooperation forward. pic.twitter.com/WBwVCPpzF5

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 4, 2023

Finer led the US delegation to New Delhi this week for an inter-sessional review of the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) with Misri. “The iCET is a major milestone in the US-India partnership, which is increasingly defined by strategic security and technology cooperation,” the White House readout said. He also conducted bilateral and regional consultations with Misri, Jaishankar, Doval and Kwatra for “in-depth discussions aimed at strengthening coordination and policy alignment across the Indo-Pacific, including the wider Indian Ocean region”. According to the White House readout, they also discussed the “Middle East, including the recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the importance of safeguarding freedom of commercial navigation, as well as plans for a post-conflict Gaza and a pathway toward a two-state solution”. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Monday that the two deputy NSAs “reviewed key bilateral issues and exchanged views on regional and global developments”. Also read: How a man named Nikhil Gupta ‘plotted to kill’ Gurpatwant Singh Pannun How the US is taking the case ‘very seriously’ On Tuesday, the US reiterated that it “will wait to see the results” of India’s probe into the alleged assassination attempt on Pannun in New York. The US state department spokesperson said that they take the matter “very seriously”. Mathew Miller told reporters that the issue has been discussed at the “most senior levels of this government”. “The Secretary of State has raised this directly with his foreign counterpart that we take this issue very seriously,” he said, according to The Indian Express. “They told us they would conduct an investigation. They have publicly announced an investigation. And now we’ll wait to see the results of the investigation, but it’s something we take very seriously,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_13471982” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] India has set up a high-level enquiry after US authorities raised concerns with New Delhi that an Indian official may have known about a plot to kill Pannun on American soil. The US said on Tuesday that it takes the matter ‘very seriously’. File photo/AP[/caption] When asked about India’s cooperation in the investigation of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another Khalistani terrorist, who was killed in Canada, Miller said that the US had urged India to cooperate with the Canadian investigation. “And number two, with respect to their own investigations… they have said that they will conduct it.” “We are looking forward to seeing the results of that investigation, and I’m not going to make any assessments, obviously, before the investigation itself is completed,” Miller told the media. Nijjar vs Pannun: Why India’s response to Canada and US probes is so different What we know about the Pannun assassination plot According to US prosecutors, a plot to assassinate Pannun in New York was foiled. The US department of justice (DoJ) filed an indictment last week in the New York district court, accusing  Gupta and an unnamed Indian government employee of allegedly planning the killing. In electronic communications and audio and video calls secretly recorded or obtained by US law enforcement, organisers of the plot talked last spring about plans to kill someone in California and at least three other people in Canada, in addition to the victim in New York, according to the indictment. The goal was to kill at least four people in the two countries by June 29, and then more after that, prosecutors contended, reports The Associated Press. [caption id=“attachment_13471942” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The US claimed that it thwarted an alleged plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. First reported by the Financial Times, the official says U.S. authorities are concerned that the Indian government may have had prior knowledge of the alleged plan. File photo/AP[/caption] According to a Financial Times report, Washington issued a “diplomatic warning” to New Delhi over an “assassination attempt” on Pannun on American soil and its concerns that India was involved in the plot. New Delhi has designated Pannun as an “individual terrorist” since 1 July 2020 and his group, Sikhs for Justice, has been banned in India since 10 July 2019. In its first reaction, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the US had “shared some inputs pertaining to the nexus between organised criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others”. “India takes such inputs seriously since it impinges on our own national security interests as well,” spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said in a statement. The Indian government last week constituted a high-level investigation committee into “all the relevant aspects of the matter”. With inputs from agencies