India is to look into any information it receives on its alleged links to a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist leader in the US, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Wednesday.
The issue comes at a delicate juncture for both India and the administration of US President Joe Biden as they try to build closer ties in the face of shared concerns about China’s growing power.
“If someone gives us any information, we would definitely look into it,” Modi told the paper, as he played down any impact on diplomatic ties with Washington because of the issue.
Photo: Bloomberg
“If a citizen of ours has done anything good or bad, we are ready to look into it. Our commitment is to the rule of law,” he said.
The US Department of Justice last month said an Indian government official had directed the plot and unveiled charges against a man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder.
India expressed concern about the linkage and dissociated itself from the plot, saying it would formally investigate the concerns of Washington and take “necessary follow-up action” on the findings of a panel set up on Nov. 18.
US officials have named the target of the attempted murder as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the US and Canada.
Pannun is the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice, a group that India labeled an “unlawful association” in 2019, citing its involvement in extremist activities. In 2020, India listed Pannun as an “individual terrorist.”
News of the US plot came two months after Canada said it was looking at credible allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another Sikh separatist, in a Vancouver suburb.
India fiercely rejected Ottawa’s accusations.
Modi said India and the US shared a “mature and stable partnership.”
“Security and counterterrorism cooperation has been a key component of our partnership,” he said. “I don’t think it is appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic relations between the two countries.”
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS