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US deputy NSA raised plot to kill Khalistani leader with India: White House
The White House said Jonathan Finer has informed the Indian officials of the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible for the alleged plot to kill a Khalistani leader on American soil
US principal deputy national security advisor Jonathan Finer has informed his Indian interlocutors of the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible for allegedly plotting to kill a Khalistani leader on American soil.
Finer, who was in New Delhi for a review of the India-US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), raised the plot during meetings with Indian officials, according to a readout from the White House.
He was the first US security official to hold publicly acknowledged meetings with the Indian leadership since American prosecutors alleged last week that Indian national Nikhil Gupta had worked with an official purportedly responsible for intelligence in a thwarted plot to assassinate Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Finer “acknowledged India’s establishment of a Committee of Enquiry to investigate lethal plotting in the United States and the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible”, the White House readout said without giving details.
The readout also didn’t specify with which Indian officials Finer had raised the issue. The readout said Finer “conducted bilateral and regional consultations” with external affairs minister S Jaishankar, national security advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra and deputy national security advisor Vikram Misri.
Finer and Misri carried out an intersessional review of the iCET, which the White House readout described as a “major milestone in the US-India partnership, which is increasingly defined by strategic security and technology cooperation”.
The readout added that Finer’s consultations with the other Indian officials were in-depth discussions aimed at strengthening coordination and policy alignment across the Indo-Pacific, including the wider Indian Ocean region.
The two sides also discussed the Middle East, including the recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the importance of safeguarding freedom of commercial navigation, plans for a post-conflict Gaza and a pathway toward a two-state solution.
India has set up a high-level inquiry committee to examine the allegations of a conspiracy to kill Pannun, a senior leader of the outlawed SFJ who has already been declared a terrorist by India. New Delhi has described the indictment filed against Nikhil Gupta in a US federal court in Manhattan as a “matter of concern” and said that follow-up action will be taken on the findings of the inquiry committee.
