The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW or RAW), the intelligence agency of India, has shut down its office in North America for the first time since its inception in 1968, as per a report published by The Print news portal.
The development took place amid the ongoing row over US federal prosecutors’ accusations that an Indian intelligence hatched a plan to allegedly assassinate Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York.
Two senior Research and Analysis Wing officers were asked to leave their stations in major Western cities earlier this summer, ahead of a decision by United States prosecutors to initiate criminal charges in the wake of the spy agency’s alleged role in an assassination campaign targeting pro-Khalistan activists, intelligence sources told The Print.
RAW was also blocked from replacing its station head in Washington, DC, as per the news portal.
Expelling the officers was part of a series of moves intended to signal anger against what the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom saw as violations of the unwritten conventions which govern the operations of RAW in those countries, The Print reported.
The officers were the head of the RAW station in San Francisco and the second-in-command of its operations in London, the news portal reported quoting sources.
The officers are of senior and mid-senior levels in the Indian Police Service (IPS), The Print reported.
In addition, the Government of India was denied permission to post an officer to replace RAW’s station chief in Washington, DC, who returned home earlier this year. The new officer, in line with long-standing RAW convention, was to have taken charge before the scheduled retirement of the organisation’s former chief, Samant Goel, on 30 June, the news portal reported.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Washington DC is taking “very seriously” the allegations that an Indian government official was involved in the ‘foiled plot’ to murder a US-based Sikh separatist.
Blinken told reporters: “I can say that this is something we take very seriously. A number of us have raised this directly with the Indian Government in past weeks.”
“The government announced today that it was conducting an investigation, and that’s good and appropriate, and we look forward to seeing the results,” he said.
White House spokesperson John Kirby also echoed similar remarks when he told reporters during a press briefing: “These allegations and this investigation, we take very seriously.”
He, however, said India remains a ‘strategic partner’ of the USA.
“We are going to continue to work to improve and strengthen that strategic partnership with India,” he said.
The US Department of Justice, earlier, issued a statement alleging to foil a plot from India to murder a US-based Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
In a statement on Wednesday (November 29, 2023), the US Attorney’s Office accused an Indian government employee of being part of the murder conspiracy.
The US Attorney’s Office has filed “murder-for-hire” and murder-for-hire conspiracy charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Indian government’s reaction
“We have already said that during the course of discussions with the US on bilateral security cooperation, the US side shared some inputs pertaining to nexus between organised criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others. We had also indicated that India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue,” the Indian foreign ministry has said.
“In this context, it is informed that on November 18, the Government of India constituted a high-level Enquiry Committee to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter,” the ministry said.
India will take “necessary follow-up action” based on the findings of the committee, it added.
On November 20, the National Investigation Agency filed a case against Pannun, accusing him of issuing social media messages that said people flying with Air India were in danger.
He had also claimed that Air India would not be allowed to operate on November 19.