India expects the US to take "appropriate action" on its request to designate the pro-Khalistan separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) as a “terrorist outfit”, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Friday. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had conveyed the request during a meeting this month with Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence in the US administration. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters Friday: “We conveyed our concerns regarding anti-India elements… anti-India activities of secessionist elements in Washington, and it is our expectation that they will take appropriate action on this.” He said Singh discussed security and defence cooperation with Gabbard. She also met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Singh had conveyed SFJ’s links with terrorist groups and Pakistan’s spy agency, ISI, during his meeting with Gabbard, sources had said. This assumes significance since Gabbard also attended the conference of intelligence chiefs Sunday which was hosted by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Research & Analysis Wing chief Ravi Sinha and Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Deka. It was also attended by Canada’s CSIS chief Daniel Rogers, UK’s National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell and New Zealand’s intelligence head Andrew Hampton — all part of the Five Eyes, the intelligence-sharing alliance of US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Australia’s intelligence chief Andrew Shearer was in India last month, and couldn’t make it to the conference this time, but a senior intelligence official from Australia was present. That this request to designate SFJ as a terror organisation has come at a time when India is still confronting allegations of an assassination plot against SFJ leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in a US court, and there is an ongoing investigation by Canadian authorities into the killing of another Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, makes it an important element in Indo-US ties under the Trump 2.0 administration. Intelligence about the Nijjar plot was shared among the Five Eyes partners. India has strongly rejected allegations of killing Nijjar, calling them “absurd” and “politically motivated”. The SFJ was banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs on July 10, 2019 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and Pannun was designated an “individual terrorist” on July 1, 2020. An official statement from Gabbard’s office said on Friday: “Gabbard’s meetings in India focused on intelligence-sharing, defence, counterterrorism, and transnational threats.”
