'Speculative And Irresponsible': India's Rebuttal After US Media Alleges RAW Officer's Role In Pannun Plot

The external affairs ministry dismissed on Tuesday a report by the Washington Post, which alleged Indian spy agency’s involvement in what is thought to be a failed assassination attempt against Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and even named a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official who it said orchestrated the purported plan.

“The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

“There is an ongoing investigation of the High Level Committee set up by the Government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists and others. Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful,” he further added.

A report published by US newspaper Washington Post claimed that an officer of the foreign intelligence agency of India Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) instructed a hired hit team to kill US-based Khalistani separatist Pannun.

The report says that RAW officer Vikram Yadav gave the instructions to the hit team to eliminate the legal counsel of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) who is a prominent leader of the separatist movement. “US intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel,” the report said.

The report also said that Yadav was transferred back to Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) following the unravelling of the Pannun plot. The government of India has not responded to these assertions made by the US newspaper. American authorities have indicted Nikhil Gupta for the plot and said that he was acting at the behest of an Indian official who was named as CC-1 in the indictment. Gupta remains in a jail in Czechian capital Prague. He was detained last year by Czechian and American agencies.

The government is looking at the issue and had formed a high-level committee to investigate the matter in November based on the information shared by the US about the role of the Indian official. India at that time said that it had a bearing on India’s security as well. The report by the Washington Post claimed that Vikram Yadav was on deputation from CRPF and had allegedly forwarded details of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, including his address in New York. It also claimed that Yadav “lacked training and skills” needed for the operation that involved going head-to-head against sophisticated US counter-intelligence capabilities, the newspaper further claimed.

However, the Washington Post report paints Pannun and his Khalistani associates as dissidents but fails to note the rising cases of extremism and intimidation against members of the Indian diaspora and even Sikhs and Punjabis who do not align themselves with the Khalistani ideology.

The report fails to acknowledge that Khalistani separatists have for the past few years held rallies and referendums in Canada, Australia and in the US, trying to gather support for their secessionist cause, directly posing a threat to Indian sovereignty. The Western governments have failed to acknowledge that violent Khalistani extremists have used their soil to foment anti-India sentiments.

The US newspaper’s report also said that senior US department of justice officials and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would have implicated RAW in a murder-for-hire conspiracy. “But while a US indictment unsealed in November contained the bombshell allegation that the plot was directed by an Indian official, it referred to Yadav as only an unnamed co-conspirator, CC-1, and made no mention of the Indian spy agency,” the report said. “Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of a sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modi’s inner circle,” the report further added.

Several cases of members of the Indian diaspora being intimidated have been reported and Khalistani separatists also attacked Indian consulates and embassy offices in San Francisco and London respectively.

The report also falsely claimed that the terrorists killed in Pakistan were “separatists living in exile” and indicated as if Indian officials were responsible for these killings, a claim also first put forward by UK’s The Guardian.

The report failed to acknowledge, firstly, that India has dismissed these claims and secondly, that the killings in Pakistan were part of internal rivalry between gangs.