Days after Delhi said it was examining inputs provided by the US on an alleged plot to kill Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US, the government said Wednesday that it had constituted a high-level inquiry committee to probe into “all the relevant aspects of the matter”. UK daily Financial Times reported last week that US authorities thwarted a plot to assassinate Pannun and issued a warning to the Indian government over concerns that it was involved in the plot. On Wednesday, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said India constituted a high-level inquiry committee on November 18 to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter. “We have already said that during the course of discussions with the US on bilateral security cooperation, the US side shared some inputs pertaining to nexus between organised criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others,” Bagchi said. “We had also indicated that India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue,” he said. “In this context, it is informed that on November 18, the Government of India constituted a high-level enquiry committee to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter,” he said. Bagchi said India will take necessary follow-up action based on the findings of the committee. India’s response to the US inputs has been very different from how it reacted to the Canadian allegations, which it had rejected as “absurd and motivated”. Earlier this week, Indian High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, said that Washington had shared “legally presentable” inputs with Delhi on “Indian connections” in the alleged plot to kill Pannun, while Ottawa only shared “allegations” linked to the killing of separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He also said that the Indian connections referred to by the US were not “Government of India connections”, but were linked to “people” in India. This was the first time that a senior Indian official had drawn a distinction between what US and Canada had shared with India, regarding the alleged assassination plots against Khalistan separatists. Following the FT report on Pannun, the White House’s National Security Council spokesperson said they were treating this issue with “utmost seriousness” and had raised it with the Indian government at the most senior levels. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said, “Indian counterparts expressed surprise and concern. They stated that activity of this nature was not their policy. Based on a discussion with senior US government officials, we understand the Indian government is further investigating this issue and will have more to say about it in the coming days. We have conveyed our expectation that anyone deemed responsible should be held accountable.”
