Now Reading: US, Canada alert Pannun of new death threat before Gupta sentencing
-
01
US, Canada alert Pannun of new death threat before Gupta sentencing
US and Canadian agencies have warned Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of a new credible threat to his life. Pannun said FBI agents visited him last Thursday and advised him not to…
US and Canadian agencies have warned Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of a new credible threat to his life. Pannun said FBI agents visited him last Thursday and advised him not to travel until the threat is resolved, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued a similar warning by telephone on Tuesday. Neither agency disclosed details of the alleged plot.
The warning comes under the US Duty to Warn law as Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, awaits sentencing on November 20 in Manhattan federal court for a 2023 murder-for-hire plot to kill Pannun. Gupta pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges and faces at least 20 years in prison. The FBI has said an Indian government employee directed the plot.
Pannun, who campaigns for a sovereign Sikh state and is designated a terrorist by India, said he remains undeterred by the threats. He urged the Trump and Carney administrations to confront Prime Minister Modi over what he called threats to US and Canadian sovereignty.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The Duty to Warn protocol requires US agencies to alert a potential target only when the threat is deemed specific and credible, the same protocol was used before Nijjar’s 2023 assassination, which remains unresolved diplomatically. The case has strained India-US ties because the US indictment directly named an Indian government employee as the plot’s director. Nikhil Gupta’s sentencing on November 20 in New York will be the first judicial determination of penalties in a state-sponsored murder-for-hire case on US soil, potentially setting a precedent for how Washington treats such allegations against foreign officials. India has not yet formally responded to this latest threat alert.
Source: indiatoday.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
