Sikh Assassinations: US Exposes Modi-Doval Hubris

[Riaz Haq]

The United States Department of Justice has filed an indictment alleging that an Indian agent hired an assassin to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist. It seems that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his National Security Advisor Ajit Doval now believe in their own hype about India being a superpower that can get away with murdering American citizens on the US soil. 

Sikh Leaders: Gurpatwant Singh Pannun (L), Hardeep Singh Nijjar (Mid), Paramjeet Singh Panwar (R)

Earlier, a Canadian Sikh leader named Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in June this year in British Columbia.  The US DOJ believes that Nikhil Gupta was involved in both the killing in Canada of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and the attempted murder in New York, He is reported to have told an associate two days before the Nijjar’s slaying: “we are doing their job, brother. We are doing their New York [and] Canada [job],” according to the indictment. He lives in India and was arrested on the charges in the Czech Republic on June 30, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Gupta's plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun was foiled in a US sting operation involving an informant who was being recruited by him to be the hitman. 

“Modi and Doval have a much more macho approach to statecraft, including taking a more risky approach in intel operations in order to say, ‘Look at how tough I am in protecting India’s interests’,” said Paul McGarr, a specialist in South Asian security and intelligence at King's College London, according to France24 news agency. “RAW could do it before, but wouldn’t have conducted assassinations without Modi’s approval,” added McGarr. “RAW has got the political license to kill under Modi.” 

The US DOJ decision to go public with charges came after President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and CIA Director William Burns warned India of potential consequences for the U.S.-India relationship over the actions, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The Indian government is engaged in a worldwide assassination campaign targeting Sikhs and Kashmiris seen as "terrorists" by New Delhi, according to leaked documents of Pakistani intelligence agencies.  Inside Pakistan, a spate of assassinations and other attacks in recent years targeted people alleged to be involved in Sikh and Kashmiri activism as well as Islamist militancy inside India, according to The Intercept.  Last month, the Pakistani government arrested people it believes were involved in targeted killings of Sikhs and Kashmiris inside Pakistan. 

Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said her country remained a “target of a series of targeted killings and espionage by (Indian Intelligence Agency) RAW".  “In December last year, Pakistan released a comprehensive dossier providing concrete and irrefutable evidence of India’s involvement in the Lahore attack of June 2021. The attack was planned and executed by Indian intelligence,” she said, adding that in 2016, a high-ranking Indian military officer Kulbhushan Jadhav confessed to his involvement in directing, financing and executing terror and sabotage in Pakistan.

Narendra Modi has a long history of murdering minorities in his country. After the Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002, Narendra Modi made the cover of India Today magazine with the caption "Hero of Hatred". Modi was denied a visa to visit the United States.  The US visa ban on Modi was lifted in 2014 after he became prime minister. Since then,  Narendra Modi's image has been rehabilitated by the West as the US and Western Europe seek allies in Asia to counter the rise of China.  However, Modi's actions on the ground in India confirm that he remains "Hero of Hatred" and "Divider In Chief" at his core.  A recent two-part BBC documentary explains this reality in significant detail. The first part focuses on the 2002 events in Gujarat when Modi as the state chief minister ordered the police to not stop the Hindu mobs murdering Muslims and burning their homes and businesses.  The second part looks at Modi government's anti-Muslim policies, including the revocation of Kashmir's autonomy (article 370) and a new citizenship law (CAA 2019) that discriminates against Muslims. It shows the violent response by security forces to peaceful protests against the new laws, and interviews the family members of people who were killed in the 2020 Delhi riots orchestrated by Modi's allies. 

Here's Indian National Security Advisor on how to use Taliban to attack Pakistan:

https://youtu.be/eYRuk8H5M9E?si=ZB1c7Dd8ntQdKeFi

https://www.youtube.com/embed/eYRuk8H5M9E?si=kioJoC8X-6nHSzSV"; title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>" height="315" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" width="560" style="cursor: move; background-color: #b2b2b2;" /> 

 Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Karan Thapar Dismantles Official Indian Narrative on Kulbhushan Jadhav

Why is India Sponsoring Terror in Pakistan? 

Indian Agent Kubhushan Yadav's Confession

Has Modi Stepped Up India's Covert War in Pakistan?

Ex India Spy Documents Successful RAW Ops in Pakistan

London Police Document Confirms MQM-RAW Connection Testimony

India's Ex Spooks Blame Kulbhushan Jadhav For Getting Caught

Ajit Doval Lecture on "How to Tackle Pakistan" 

Mohan Lal Bhaskar: An Indian Raw Agent in Pakistan

Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

 

PakAlumni Social Network

[Riaz Haq]

India should take Canada allegations 'seriously,' US says

https://www.dw.com/en/india-should-take-canada-allegations-seriousl...

Having made similar allegations recently, the United States has urged India to respond appropriately to Canada's concerns. Meanwhile, trade between India and Canada appears so far unaffected by the diplomatic spat.

The United States on Tuesday waded into the diplomatic spat between Canada and India, urging the latter to take the former's allegations of an assassination plot seriously.

"When it comes to the Canadian matter, we have made clear that the allegations are extremely serious and they need to be taken seriously," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

"We wanted to see the government of India cooperate with Canada in its investigation," he added. "Obviously, they have not; they have chosen an alternate path."

India and Canada are key partners of the United States, but both on Monday expelled each other's top diplomats over Canadian allegations that Indian government agents were involved in a violent campaign against Sikh separatists on its soil.

Ottawa has alleged in particular that New Delhi was involved in the assassination last year of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an India-born advocate for an independent Sikh state who had immigrated to Canada and become a citizen.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said India had made a "fundamental error."

Does the United States share Canada's concerns?
The US desire to see India take the matter "seriously" is rooted in similar allegations made by Washington over a similar, albeit unsuccessful, assassination plot by India on US soil in November 2023.

An Indian "Enquiry Committee" formed in response to the US allegations was visiting Washington on Tuesday to discuss the case, the State Department said.

India "has informed the United States they are continuing their efforts to investigate other linkages of the former government employee and will determine follow up steps, as necessary," the State Department said.

"The fact that they sent an Enquiry Committee here, I think, demonstrates that they are taking this seriously," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

How has Canada-India trade been affected?
Meanwhile, despite the tensions, Canadian and Indian government officials have said that there has been no immediate negative impact on bilateral trade ties.

"I want to reassure our business community that our government remains fully committed to supporting the well-established commercial ties between Canada and India," Canadian trade minister Mary Ng said in a statement late on Monday.

"We will work closely with all Canadian enterprises engaged with India to ensure these important economic connections remain strong."

Canada primarily exports minerals, pulses, potash, industrial chemicals and gemstones to India and while goods such as pharmaceuticals, marine products, electronic equipment, pearls and precious stones go in the other direction.

But an Indian government source told the Reuters news agency: "We are not immediately concerned about trade ties. Our bilateral trade with Canada is not very large."

Bilateral trade between India and Canada amounted to $8.4 billion (€7.7 billion) at the end of the last fiscal year on March 31, according to India's trade ministry, marginally up on the previous year.

India's foreign ministry says more than 600 Canadian companies have a presence in India in sectors including IT, banking, and financial services.

Canadian Sikh leaders accuse India of hiring hitmen
Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada’s center-left New Democratic Party (NDP), called the allegations "deeply disturbing" in a video shared by Reuters news agency.

Singh, a Sikh, said that official investigations "painted a picture of a foreign government engaging criminal elements in Canada to perpetrate violence against Canadians."

He called for sanctions against some Indian diplomats in Canada with links to the right-wing Indian paramilitary the RSS.

[Riaz Haq]

Of the more than 1.3 million Indian students studying abroad in 2024, Canada tops the position with 427,000 – which is 41 percent of total international students in Canada.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/11/15/india-canada-tensions-...
The United States has 337,000 students, the United Kingdom has 185,000 students, and Germany hosts 42,997 Indian students, as per data from the Ministry of External Affairs.

Pratibha Jain, the founder of Eduabroad, a consultancy which for the past three decades has helped students get admission into some of the top universities across the globe, told Al Jazeera that there has been about a 10 percent decline in queries for Canada and the trend has been shifting to other countries instead including the UK, Australia, Dubai and in Europe.

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Canada Govt ends fast-track student visas for India, 13 other countries | Education News - The Indian Express


https://indianexpress.com/article/education/canada-govt-ends-fast-t...


In a decision that will impact applicants from India — and at a time when diplomatic ties between the two countries are strained — Canada ended its popular, fast-track student visa programme with effect from Friday.

The Student Direct Stream (SDS) programme was launched in 2018 to provide faster processing for eligible post-secondary students from 14 countries, including India. Besides a shorter processing time, the approval rates were also higher under the programme.

According to official estimates, 60 per cent of the 4 lakh Indian students who sought to study in Canada in 2023 applied under the SDS programme. Under SDS, the approval rate for Indian students was consistently higher, breaching 70 per cent in 2023. In contrast, those applying through the regular route had approval rates as low as 10 per cent.

Announcing the end of the programme on Friday, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said: “Canada’s goal is to strengthen programme integrity, address student vulnerability, and give all students equal and fair access to the application process, as well as a positive academic experience. To meet this commitment, the Student Direct Stream (SDS)… ended as of 2 pm today… Canada is committed to giving all international students equal and fair access to the application process for study permits.”

The IRCC said prospective students can still apply through the regular study permit route, for which guaranteed investment certificates are accepted as proof of financial support.

Under the SDS programme, students could secure study permits in just 20 working days, even as processing times under the standard route often extend to around eight weeks for Indian applicants.

India is Canada’s largest source country of foreign students with an estimated 4.27 lakh Indian students studying there in 2023.

The SDS programme was available to residents of Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vietnam.

Calling it a big blow to students aspiring to study in Canada, Gurpreet Singh, who has been running a visa consultancy in Kapurthala for the last 10 years, said all the students from his area had been taking the SDS route ever since it was introduced. “That’s the case with most of the students from the rest of Punjab as well,” he said.

[Riaz Haq]

Ashok Swain:

Modi did everything to defeat Muizzu in the 2023 election in the Maldives by providing men & money but failed. Even RAW had a plan to remove President Muizzu after the election. The Washington Post reports Modi manipulating elections in foreign countries.


https://x.com/ashoswai/status/1873810065469432187?s=61&t=mgTxrm...

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A plot in paradise and India’s struggle for influence in Asia
Secret contacts between Indian agents and politicians in the Maldives over ousting its pro-China leader reflect the growing contest between Asia’s great powers.
By Gerry Shih and Siddharthya Roy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/30/maldives-president-...


In January, after Muizzu had won and taken office, an adviser to the Muizzu family said, a senior RAW intelligence officer at New Delhi’s embassy in Washington explored a plan to overthrow the president with two Indian intermediaries who had political and business contacts in the Maldives. One intermediary was Shirish Thorat, a former Indian police officer who has worked as a private military contractor and who advised Mohamed Nasheed when he was the Maldivian president on how to curb Islamist radicalization. The other was Savio Rodrigues, a publisher based in the Indian state of Goa who previously served as a spokesman for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Muizzu family adviser provided The Post with surveillance records of phone calls and meetings held by the RAW official and Thorat, who now lives near Washington, but did not explain how the records were obtained.
When contacted by The Post, Thorat and Rodrigues separately confirmed the existence of plans to remove Muizzu but declined to say whether they were working on the Indian government’s behalf. When asked about his meetings with an Indian intelligence officer, Thorat explained that he sometimes paid social visits to friends working at the embassy and said he was not surprised that he had been surveilled, “given my work.”