The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer was also involved in the assassination of a Sikh activist last June in Canada. The RAW is India’s external intelligence agency, says the Washington Post report.
the report details Vikram Yadav, an Indian RAW official, ordered Pannun’s killing around the same time that Modi visited the White House in a high-profile tour as the two nations build closer ties in the face of shared concerns about China’s growing power.
Rejecting the report, however, the Ministry of External Affairs of India made “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter”.
A day later, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) published another report, saying a “nest” of Indian spies was uncovered and expelled from the country for trying to steal defence secrets and monitor expatriate communities in 2020.
So, is India’s spy agency increasingly targeting dissidents abroad? Here’s the latest:
In November, US authorities said an Indian government official had directed an unsuccessful plot to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the US and Canada.
Pannun is the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice, a group that India labelled an “unlawful association” in 2019, citing its involvement in extremist activities. In 2020, India listed Pannun as an “individual terrorist”.
Sikhs for Justice is part of a decades-old movement pushing for an independent Sikh state, called Khalistan, incorporating mostly the Indian state of Punjab. While the movement at its peak saw the killings of thousands of Sikhs and Indian security personnel in the 1980s, it largely lost momentum in India, even though it retains influence among some Sikh diaspora groups in the US, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
As per the indictment, on June 20, 2023, two days before Modi spoke at the White House, Yadav emailed Nikhil Gupta, an Indian man hired for the killing, that Pannun’s assassination was a “priority now”. But Gupta turned out to be an informer, working with US federal agencies, and that is how the plot was foiled.
“India should get to the bottom of this appalling murder-for-hire case – and the United States should make clear that it will not tolerate such crimes within its borders,” said an editorial in The Washington Post on Tuesday.
Likewise, Public broadcaster ABC on Tuesday reported that Indian spies were caught there by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 2020 while they were trying to “steal secrets about sensitive defence projects and airport security, as well as classified information on Australia’s trade relationships”.
Citing unnamed “national security and government figures”, the report said the Indian “nest of spies” was also accused of surveilling Indians living there and developing close relationships with current and former politicians.
Australian intelligence officials in 2021 had mentioned a “nest of spies” but the country’s government refused to name the country they were working for.
