iNDICA NEWS BUREAU–
The Indian government instructed its consulates in North America to launch a “sophisticated crackdown scheme” against Sikh diaspora organizations in Western countries, according to a secret memorandum issued in April 2023 by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, according to The Intercept, a nonprofit online news organization.
India rejected the report, calling it “fake and completely fabricated.” Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Sunday, “We strongly assert that such reports are fake and completely fabricated. There is no such memo.” Bagchi said that the report is part of a “sustained disinformation campaign against India.” He said that the media outlet is known for propagating fake narratives peddled by Pakistani intelligence.
According to The Intercept, the memo lists several Sikh separatists under investigation by India’s intelligence agencies, including the Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar (in photo above). According to The Intercept, the memo says: “Concrete measures shall be adopted to hold the suspects accountable.”
READ: indica’s complete coverage of the Hardeep Singh Nijjar killing
The report said, “Titled ‘Action Points on Khalistan Extremism,’ using the name Sikh activists use for a separatist state, the document lists several Sikh activist organizations it blames for engaging in “anti-India propaganda,” as well as acts of “arson and vandalization” targeting Indian interests in North America.”
Nijjar was murdered in Vancouver in June, an assassination that the Canadian Prime Minister claimed in September was planned and orchestrated by India. According to The Intercept, Nijjar’s killing took place two months after being named as a target in the document.
Nijjar, listed as a Khalistani terrorist in India, was shot dead outside a Gurdwara in Canada’s Surrey in June this year. Nijjar was wanted in India, and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a cash reward on him. Hailing from Bharsinghpur village in Punjab’s Jalandhar, Nijjar was based in Surrey and had been declared “absconder” by the NIA.
India had rejected the allegations, calling them “absurd and motivated.” According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Canada has not been able to present any evidence to back its claims over the killing.
In response to The Intercept report, Bagchi said, “This is part of a sustained disinformation campaign against India. The outlet in question is known for propagating fake narratives peddled by Pakistani intelligence. The posts of the authors confirm this linkage. Those who amplify such fake news only do so at the cost of their own credibility.”
According to The Intercept, “The memo addresses India’s growing concerns about its reputation due to activism from Sikh dissident organizations and portrays its political enemies as extremist or even terrorist organizations.”
The report said: “The document instructs officials at its consulates to cooperate with Indian intelligence agencies to confront the groups Sikhs for Justice, Babbar Khalsa International, Sikh Youth of America, Sikh Coordination Committee East Coast, World Sikh Parliament, and Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar America. It suggests that Nijjar and several other “suspects” are affiliated with one of these groups, Babbar Khalsa International. Babbar Khalsa International is proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.S. and Canada, but the other organizations named in the document are considered legal in both countries.”
It added: “The leaked April memo from India’s Ministry of External Affairs does not explicitly order the killings of Sikh activists. Instead, it calls on Indian consular officials operating in the U.S. and Canada to work in cooperation with India’s Research and Analysis Wing, a foreign intelligence agency; the National Investigation Agency, a counterterror police force; and the Intelligence Bureau, an internal security agency akin to the FBI. Aside from Nijjar, a number of people accused in the document of having ties with BKI are believed to be based in Pakistan or currently incarcerated in India.”
In November this year, the US Justice Department had charged an Indian national Nikhil Gupta and an unnamed Indian government employee, dubbed CC-1 in the indictment, with trying to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American citizen based in New York. Gupta was arrested in Prague, Czech Republic and is currently in a US jail, pending trial.
The plot was foiled was because the hitman Gupta tried to hire turned out to be an undercover DEA agent.
