US Calls Meeting With India On Foiled Sikh Murder Plot Productive

WASHINGTON, DC (REUTERS) – A meeting between the U.S. and India on a probe into a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist on American soil was productive, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on October 16 adding Washington was satisfied with India’s cooperation.

Washington has said that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York last year and had indicted an Indian national working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.

An Indian government committee investigating Indian involvement in the foiled murder plot met with U.S. officials in Washington, the State Department spokesperson said.

The United States has been pushing India to investigate the U.S. Justice Department’s claim that an unnamed Indian intelligence official directed plans to assassinate Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canada citizen.

“They did inform us that the individual who was named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer an employee of the Indian government,” the State Department spokesperson told reporters in a press briefing, without giving further details. He called the meeting “productive.”

“We are satisfied with (their) cooperation. It continues to be an ongoing process,” the State Department spokesperson said.

“The U.S. government broadly updated members of the (Indian) committee of inquiry about the investigation that the United States has been conducting. We’ve received an update from them on the investigation that they have been conducting,” he added.