'Surprised, concerned' India said 'such activity not their policy': US on 'plot' to kill Khalistani terrorist Pannun
Financial Times first reported the plot. Following this, Indian officials expressed "surprise and concern" when they were informed about the incident, said White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson. “We are treating this issue with utmost seriousness, and it has been raised by the US government with the Indian government, including at the senior-most levels." "They stated that activity of this nature was not their policy ...
We understand the Indian government is further investigating this issue and will have more to say about it in the coming days. We have conveyed our expectation that anyone deemed responsible should be held accountable," she added. This week, India's anti-terror agency filed a case against Pannun stating that he warned flag carrier Air India passengers in video messages shared on social media this month that their lives were in danger.
Pannun, like Nijjar, is a proponent of a decades-long but now fringe demand to carve out an independent Sikh homeland from India called Khalistan, a plan New Delhi sees as a security threat due to a violent insurgency in the 1970s and 1980s. India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against Pannun under charges related to terrorism and conspiracy, among others. It stated he threatened in video messages to not let Air India operate anywhere in the world.
The case comes against the historical backdrop of a bombing in 1985 of an Air India aircraft flying from Canada to India that killed 329, and for which Sikh militants were blamed. Pannun told Reuters on Tuesday that his message was to "boycott Air India not bomb." He told Reuters on Wednesday he would let the U.S. government respond "to the issue of threats to my life on American soil from the Indian
. Read more on livemint.com
