The Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday responded to a report by the Washington Post that claimed that a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) official allegedly ordered the assassination of Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, saying that the story makes “unwarranted imputations to a serious matter.”
“The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter. There is an ongoing investigation of the High-Level Committee set up by the Government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists and others,” an MEA statement said.
“Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful,” it added.
What did the report reveal?
The Washington Post article named Vikram Yadav, an R&AW official, to have hired a hit team to kill Pannun.
The information was reportedly given by current and former US and Indian security officials who said that Yadav had marked the assassination plot as a “priority.”
Following this, the intelligence officer relayed details about Pannun including his New York address to the hit team. The plan, according to the officials and a US indictment, was to get a confirmation from the would-be assassins that the Khalistani leader was home, setting the assassination plot into motion.
Former R&AW chief approved op
The report further claims that the then-R&AW chief, Samant Goel, had approved the operation to kill Pannun, a piece of information that former Indian security officials confirmed.
The officials also said that Goel was under “immense pressure to eliminate the alleged threat of Sikh extremists overseas.”
“Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of a sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modi’s inner circle,” the report added.
