‘Unwarranted and unsubstantiated’ — Here’s how India reacted to the charge that RAW chief approved Pannun assassination plot
New Delhi. India’s Ministry of External Affairs has reacted to the Washington Post report, which said that the plot to kill Sikh extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun was approved by Samant Goel, the chief of the spy agency in New Delhi at the time.
“The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter,” the statement issued on the morning of April 30 said.
Samant Kumar Goel retired as the chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the country’s premier spy agency, last year after a four-year stint.
The source-based report on Washington Post also said that US officials suspect that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of the plan to kill Sikh activists. However, in the same sentence, the article said that “no smoking gun proof has emerged.”
India’s foreign ministry retorted calling the report speculative and irresponsible. “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,” it added.
The US-based Pannun, the leader of a banned Sikh separatist group, is also a designated terrorist with a history of inciting violence.
“We are asking the Sikh people not to fly via Air India. From November 19. Your life can be in danger,” he said in in a video shared on social media last year.
The charge that Indian government plotted an assassination of an American citizen on US soil is one threatens to jeopardise bilateral ties between the two countries.
A criminal investigation Department of Justice is underway in the US. Earlier this month, the country’s ambassador to India called the alleged assassination attempt as “the red line”.
However, the Washington Post report said that officials in the US were wary of disrupting ties with India and that’s the reason why DoJ has decided not to press charges against Goel.
“We’ve been really consistent about that and have laid that out multiple times, whether it’s a meeting here with the prime minister or a meeting abroad. This is a serious matter and we’re taking that very very seriously. The Government of India has been very clear with us that they are taking this seriously and will investigate,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on April 29.
Earlier on Monday, India’s foreign ministry summoned Stewart Wheeler, the Canadian Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi a day after Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, attended an event where Sikh separatists raised slogans against India.
“This illustrates once again the political space that has been given in Canada to separatism, extremism and violence,” the Indian government said in a statement after the meeting with Wheeler.
New Delhi’s grouse is that terrorists like Pannun and other separatists who plot and control their activities in India are given shelter and encouragement in countries like the US, UK, and Canada.