A US-based group advocating for an independent Sikh state in northern India announced that a US district court has summoned the Indian government in a civil lawsuit involving claims of a "murder-for-hire plot" and repression, a charge India rejects.
Pannun, the general counsel for Sikhs for Justice – which is a US-based group that is part of a movement pushing for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan in northern India – has been designated a "terrorist" by the Indian government.
Pannun, wrote on X - his account is withheld in India: “US District Court for Southern District of New York issued summons against government of India in the civil lawsuit on the issues of 'murder for hire plot' and transnational repression.”
“As we have said earlier, these are completely unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations. Now that this particular case has been lodged, it doesn’t change our views about the underlying situation,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi.
Last year, Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered outside a community shrine near Vancouver, diplomatic and legal actions are increasing scrutiny on India’s supposed involvement in suppressing overseas Sikh separatist movements through assassinations in the US and Canada.
In June, Nikhil Gupta, who is suspected of being involved in a plot to assassinate Pannun, was extradited from the Czech Republic to the US.
Nijjar was linked to the Khalistan movement, which advocates for a Sikh nation in India. While Sikhs make up 2 per cent of India's population, they represent nearly 60 per cent in Punjab. Khalistan is the proposed name for this nation, including Punjab and other Punjabi-speaking regions.
Although the movement declined after a peak in the 1970s and early 1980s due to crackdowns by Indian forces and Hindu mobs, it has recently experienced a resurgence among Sikhs in the diaspora.
Last November, India said it was probing the US concerns over a foiled assassination plot. The probe announcement came after Washington had notified New Delhi that it thwarted a conspiracy to assassinate the Sikh separatist leader on US soil.
