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Pannun’s threat to Indian envoy: Expect US to take security concerns seriously, says India
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the Union ministry of external affairs (MEA), said at the ministry’s weekly press briefing in New Delhi expressed confidence that the US would address India’s security concerns.
India on Friday asked the US to take New Delhi’s security concerns seriously after separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun issued threats to India’s Ambassador to the United States Vinay Mohan Kwatra.
Pannun, leader of the banned pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), recently said Kwatra was under the surveillance of pro-Khalistan groups, accusing the Indian envoy of coordinating with Russian diplomats to counter Khalistani activities in North America.
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the Union ministry of external affairs (MEA), said at the ministry’s weekly press briefing in New Delhi expressed confidence that the US would address India’s security concerns.
“We have raised it with the US government and it is our expectation that the US government will take our security concerns seriously,” he added.
Pannun is an India-designated terrorist who holds American and Canadian citizenship.
In October, the MEA had confirmed that the individual named in the US justice department’s indictment case in a foiled assassination plot against Pannun was no longer an employee of the Indian government. The US justice department had claimed that an Indian government employee (named CC-1), who was not identified in the indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan, recruited an Indian national, named Nikhil Gupta, to hire a hitman to carry out the assassination of Pannun, which was foiled by US authorities, according to prosecutors.
