The Indian government has rejected The Washington Post report naming an official of its spy agency for plotting the killing of a US-based Sikh separatist leader as an “unwarranted and unsubstantiated” accusation.
“The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday in a press conference.
“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’ speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful,” he said.
The report mentioned that US intelligence agencies have assessed that the plan to hire a hit team to assassinate Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — which was ultimately thwarted — was approved by Samant Goel, the chief of the Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) at the time.
