LONDON/WASHINGTON: Pro-Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has accused India’s Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar of transnational terrorism against Sikhs who want the creation of an independent state of Khalistan.

The Sikh For Justice (SFJ) General Counsel to SFJ Pannun — who survived several high-profile Indian assassination bids on his life — has said in an open letter to the United States government.

In a letter to Antony Blinken, Secretary of the State, around India’s Minister for External Affairs Jaishankar’s meetings with the US officials, the SFJ has raised the issues of Indian PM Narendra Modi government’s “policy of violent transnational repression on the American soil against the pro-Khalistan Sikhs, which directly challenges America’s sovereignty and endangers the life and liberty of Americans”.

The letter signed off by Pannun says: “In November 2023, US Department of Justice filed indictment on the charges of ‘Murder For Hire’ against Indian national Nikhil Gupta who at the behest of the officials of Indian government hired assassins to murder New York-based attorney and General Counsel of Sikhs For Justice due to his activism for Khalistan and Khalistan Referendum. India’s transnational repression against pro-Khalistan Sikhs is not limited to America. From the June 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey Canada, the Modi government has targeted pro-Khalistan Sikhs in the UK, Australia and Pakistan as well.

“Honorable Secretary, even after Biden Administration’s firm resolve to prosecute the Indian national and to further investigate and bring to justice anyone involved in ‘Murder For Hire’ plot, PM Modi and his lieutenants NSA Ajit Doval and Defence Minister Rajnath have time and again repeated and restated their intention to continue with the policy of transnational repression. As recent as June 2024, PM Modi on the floor of the Indian Parliament declared that his government will continue with the policy of ‘Ghar Main Ghus Ke MarenGe’; (We will enter your home and kill you). As External Minister of India, Jaishankar is the international face and mouthpiece of the Modi government who through backdoor diplomacy tries to justify and palliate Modi Government’s policy to violently crush the political opinion of American Sikhs on American soil.

Honourable Secretary, any more quiet diplomacy with India on the issue of transnational repression will only embolden and encourage the Modi government to continue with the course of attempting to threat and silence American Citizens on American soil. While, as Americans, we wish the United States to have the best trade and economic deals, however, protection of life, liberty and freedom of expression of Americans from foreign governments is the core and existential American value which should not be compromised for any economic or trade benefit with India.”

Meanwhile, pro-Khalistan Sikh activists protested outside Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Centre where the minister for external affairs Jaishankar’s spoke. The activists chanted “Kill Modi politics”, “Hindutva terror”, forcing Jaishankar to leave through the backdoor.

The Sikh activists had called the protest saying that India’s EAM is the architect of Modi regime’s violent transnational repression against pro-Khalistan Sikhs and planned, amongst others, Pannun’s murder-for-hire plot.