India Refutes Claims of RAW Involvement in Targeted Killing Bid.
The Ministry of External Affairs has dismissed a Washington Post report alleging an unsuccessful assassination attempt on a Khalistani terrorist orchestrated by India‘s intelligence agency RAW.
The report had purportedly named a RAW official as directing a hit team to eliminate SFJ legal counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US. It cited Western security assessments implicating higher RAW echelons, too.
Reacting sharply, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal termed the imputations “unwarranted and unsubstantiated”. He noted an ongoing government committee probe into security concerns shared by American counterparts regarding organised criminal operations.
According to the newspaper, a CRPF officer on RAW deputation had forwarded Pannun’s details to hired attackers. It portrayed the target and associates as dissenting voices but ignored rising extremism and diaspora intimidation by Khalistani groups.
While a US indictment last year referred to the Indian official behind bars as “CC-1”, senior DoJ and FBI officials planned to implicate RAW in the murder conspiracy directly, the report claimed.
However, New Delhi remains sceptical, as speculation will not aid the investigation. The controversy comes amid unrest over Khalistani activism in Western nations failing to acknowledge threats to India’s sovereignty.
With polarised stances evident, resolving transnational dimensions of the case objectively poses a test as both allies aim to preserve democratic and investigative integrity.
