UK police warnings renew fears of covert campaign against Sikhs
MPs warn of tensions between diaspora and Indian Government
A cross-party group of British MPs has written to security minister Tom Tugendhat after a number of Sikhs received police ‘threat to life warnings’ about their personal safety.
One of those who received a warning from West Midlands Police told The Times that it could be linked to their opposition to the Indian government, although he acknowledged that local fundamentalists could be responsible.1
According to Sky News, the letter signed by Labour, Conservative and SNP parliamentarians stated:
"This comes amid increased tensions between the Indian government and its supporters and Sikh separatist activists, and following the news of the alleged extrajudicial killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and the plot by an Indian government employee to kill the Sikh attorney and activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil last year.2
The killing of Singh Nijjar in June last year led Canada to expel the local station chief of India’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).3 There were suggestions that R&AW had embarked on a Mossad-style campaign of assassination, although Dr Dheeraj Paramesha of Hull University told the Telegraph that R&AW favoured a more indirect approach, ‘their way of doing it is to use one group against another group.’4
Elements of the US indictment in the Singh Pannun case are reminiscent of that modus operandi, traditionally employed in South Asia rather than the West. An Indian government official (‘CC-1’) is alleged to have recruited one Nikhil Gupta to procure the assassination in return for dismissal of a criminal case in India.
In or about May 2023, CC-1 recruited GUPTA to orchestrate the assassination of the Victim in the United States. GUPTA, an Indian national who also resides in India, is an associate of CC-1 and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with CC-1 and others.
At CC-1 's direction, GUPTA contacted an individual whom GUPTA believed to be a criminal associate, but who was in fact a confidential source working with U.S. law enforcement (the "CS"), for assistance in contracting a hitman to murder the Victim in New York City. The CS introduced GUPTA to a purported hitman, who was in fact an undercover U.S. law enforcement officer (the "UC"). CC-1 subsequently agreed, in dealings brokered by GUPTA, to pay the UC $100,000 to murder the Victim.5
Gupta is alleged to have claimed some involvement in the Nijjar Singh killing in conversation with the US ‘hitman.’6 One wonders whether this intelligence contributed to Justin Trudeau’s subsequent accusation against India.
The Nijjar Singh and Singh Pannun cases are reported to have been on the agenda for a succession of US intelligence and security officials visiting India over the past year, including the CIA’s William Burns, the DNI Avril Haines and the FBI’s Christopher Wray.7
It is not yet clear if the UK police warnings have a substantive link to those cases. If they do, it might suggest that the Five Eyes network linking the US, Canada and the UK has significant intelligence on India’s operations.
See also:
Nijjar Killing highlights new age of assassination, 29 September 2023.
Indian Covert Action: pro-Modi media hints at other cases, 27 October 2023.
Fiona Hamilton, Sikhs given ‘threat to life’ notices fear link to India, The Times, 15 January 2024.
Tim Baker, MPs request 'urgent' meeting with security minister after 'threat to life warnings' given to UK Sikhs, Sky News, 18 January 2024.
Krishn Kaushik and Sanjeev Miglani, India's spies infiltrated West long before Canada's murder claim, Reuters, 4 October 2023.
Ben Farmer and Samaan Lateef, Inside the shadowy Indian spy agency at the heart of Canada killing row, Telegraph, 24 September 2023.
US v. Gupta indictment, US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, 29 November 2023.
Ibid.
As Pannun case heats up in U.S. Senate, FBI chief to visit India, The Hindu, 7 December 2023.