By HRW team

(New York) – Indian authorities should conduct thorough and impartial investigations into allegations that government agents were involved in assassination plots against Sikh separatists in the United States and Canada, Human Rights Watch said today. The Indian government has already been linked to online disinformation campaigns against academics and activists living abroad.

The Indian government’s systemic failures to prosecute security force personnel for extrajudicial killings and other serious abuses in India raise broader concerns about its willingness to address transnational repression – abuses committed against nationals outside the country.

“India’s alleged involvement in assassination plots in the US and Canada suggests a new and notorious leap in extrajudicial killings,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indian authorities’ repeated failure to hold police and military personnel accountable for unlawful killings demonstrates the need for more credible investigations.”

In September 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of involvement in the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh separatist leader, on June 18, in British Columbia. The Indian government dismissed the allegations as “absurd.”

On November 29, US authorities announced charges against an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, whom they allege was recruited by an unnamed Indian government official to arrange a contract killing of a Sikh separatist leader in the US. The Indian authorities said such actions were “contrary to government policy” and announced a high-level inquiry committee to investigate the allegations.

While the indictment for conspiracy to commit murder does not name the intended target of the plot, it was widely reported to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel for the US-based Sikhs for Justice. The group advocates the secession of Punjab state from India to create the independent nation of Khalistan for Sikhs, a minority religious group in the country. The alleged plot was foiled by US authorities, according to the prosecutors.

The public indictment refers to the Indian government official as “CC-1,” a “Senior Field Officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence. Gupta, allegedly working at the direction of the Indian agent, contacted an individual he believed was a criminal associate for help to contract a hitman for the murder. But the associate was actually a confidential source working for US law enforcement, and the “hitman” was an undercover US law enforcement officer.

This story was originally published in hrw.org. Read the full story here.