An American Sikh who was the goal of an alleged assassination plot organized by an Indian authorities official has stated he’s nonetheless getting a whole bunch of threats a day, whilst India has claimed it’s investigating the murder-for-hire conspiracy.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York-based lawyer, stated the threats on social media and different boards have continued unabated because the Department of Justice alleged that an unnamed Indian authorities official with ties to intelligence – often called CC-1 in a US indictment – organized to kill the Sikh activist on US soil. CC-1 additionally seems to have performed a job within the homicide of one other activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada final June.

“They want me dead. I know that because I am organizing a Khalistan referendum to liberate Punjab from the Indian occupation,” Pannun stated in a cellphone interview. In some instances, Pannun stated he’s being in contrast on social media posts with the Iranian common Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in an airstrike ordered by the White House beneath Donald Trump in 2020.

“They are saying if the US can kill him, why can’t India kill me?” Pannun stated.

The 56-year-old activist, who was born in Punjab however moved to the US and have become an legal professional, was listed as a terrorist by India in 2020 for allegedly difficult India’s home safety.

In the US he’s main requires the creation of a separate Sikh state known as Khalistan and is organizing a symbolic referendum to be held in California subsequent month for Sikh voters. He has labored intently previously with different Sikh activists, together with Avtar Singh Khanda, a UK-based Sikh activist who died after a sudden and transient sickness similtaneously Indian authorities have been allegedly plotting to kill Pannun and murdered Nijjar.

Panuun additionally factors to earlier threats towards him that have been made contained in the Indian parliament, together with by an MP who reportedly called for a “surgical strike” against the American activist.

Weeks after the US unveiled particulars of the alleged homicide plot – which was foiled by undercover regulation enforcement brokers – interviews with different Sikh activists have revealed a continued sense of unease about their security and worries that India won’t in the end be held accountable for waging a marketing campaign of transnational repression.

Last week, a gaggle of Indian American members of Congress, who embrace influential helps of US president Joe Biden, released a statement condemning the alleged Indian murder plot, which they known as “deeply concerning”, and stated they welcomed India’s latest announcement that it might set up a committee of enquiry into the matter.

“It is critical that India fully investigate, hold those responsible, including Indian government officials, accountable, and provide assurances that this will not happen again,” they stated. Any failure to behave might danger “significant damage” to the US-India relationship.

In a response to the assertion by Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Shri Thanedar, representatives of American Sikh Gurdwaras and different neighborhood activists stated they believed the lawmakers wanted to point out better solidarity with Sikh Americans, who had not explicitly been named within the congressional assertion.

Citing the “suspicious” death of Khanda, the homicide of Nijjar and the tried homicide of Pannun, they added: “[These] are not isolated incidents. They are part of a disturbing pattern – an international assassination program directed at Sikhs. We urge you to recognize that these acts of violence are not a bug; they are a deliberate feature and pattern of Indian foreign policy.”

A public copy of the letter, which was seen by the Guardian, withheld the total id of Gurdwara leaders who signed it to safeguard their privateness.

Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, has beforehand been supportive of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. In May, Khanna joined Republican congressperson Michael Waltz in calling for then House speaker Kevin McCarthy to ask Modi to ship a joint handle to Congress, saying that doing so would strengthen US-India relationship. In a letter, he stated such an invite could be a “commensurate honor for the leader of the world’s largest democracy and perhaps the most critical partner to countering China in the 21st century”.

One month later, it later emerged a number of Sikh activists were warned by the FBI that their lives have been presumably at risk by a state-backed marketing campaign within the wake of Nijjar’s homicide in Canada.

Harminder Singh, a Sikh neighborhood chief in California, stated in an announcement to the Guardian that he had been approached in November by two people who he stated claimed to be FBI brokers and warned that the son of one other activist – Pritpal Singh – was on India’s “assassin’s” checklist. Harminder stated he contacted the FBI straight after the strategy and was instructed the people have been impersonators and that they might examine the incident.

“I am deeply concerned about individuals impersonating an FBI agent and targeting my family. I trust that our law enforcement folks will catch the perpetrators seeking to create chaos within our community,” Pritpal Singh stated.