Wednesday, the Department of Justice filed charges against a 52-year-old Indian national in conjunction with a murder-for-hire plot targeting a US citizen who is a high official in a US-based organization campaigning for independence for a Sikh homeland in the Indian state of Punjab. According to charging documents, the plot was set into motion by an agent of Indian foreign intelligence, probably the Research and Analysis Wing.

The target for the political assassination was 52-year-old Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual citizen of Canada and the US, who is general counsel of the Sikhs for Justice movement, which advocates for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan. India is unhappy with him.

However, Pannun’s involvement in such activities has attracted legal consequences. In 2020, the Government of India designated him as a terrorist, and his agricultural land was seized under Section 51A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Pannun is currently facing 22 criminal cases, including three charges of sedition, in Punjab, India.

Interestingly, in October 2022, Interpol rejected India’s second request for a Red Corner Notice against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on terrorism charges, citing insufficient information as the reason for their decision.

According to the Department of Justice, the plot started earlier in 2023 when an Indian intelligence officer contacted Nikhil Gupta and unnamed co-conspirators to form a plot to assassinate Pannun. As Gupta is involved in international narcotics and weapons trafficking, it seems like this may have been his get-out-of-jail-free card.

From there, the case followed a well-known trajectory. The Indian intelligence officer put Gupta in contact with someone who could facilitate his finding a hitman. The "someone" turned out to be a DEA informant, and the "hitman" was, you guessed it, an undercover DEA agent.

The same cell that planned Pannun's death seems to have been responsible for the assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia.

In or about June 2023, in furtherance of the assassination plot, CC-1 provided Gupta with personal information about the Victim, including the Victim’s home address in New York City, phone numbers associated with the Victim, and details about the Victim’s day-to-day conduct, which Gupta then passed to the UC. CC-1 directed Gupta to provide regular updates on the progress of the assassination plot, which Gupta accomplished by forwarding to CC-1, among other things, surveillance photographs of the Victim. Gupta directed the UC to carry out the murder as soon as possible, but Gupta also specifically instructed the UC not to commit the murder around the time of anticipated engagements scheduled to occur in the ensuing weeks between high-level U.S. and Indian government officials.

On or about June 18, masked gunmen murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada. Nijjar was an associate of the Victim, and like the Victim, was a leader of the Sikh separatist movement and an outspoken critic of the Indian government. On or about June 19, the day after the Nijjar murder, Gupta told the UC that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets.” Gupta added that, in light of Nijjar’s murder, there was “now no need to wait” on killing the Victim. On or about June 20, CC-1 sent Gupta a news article about the Victim and messaged Gupta, “[i]t’s [a] priority now.”

In addition to Pannun, Gupta told his contact that another hit was planned in California and three more killings planned in Canada. The shooting in Canada happened three days after another prominent Sikh separatist, Avtar Singh Khanda, died under "mysterious circumstances" in a hospital in Birmingham, UK. A little over a month earlier, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, leader of the Khalistan Commando Force, was assassinated in Johar, Pakistan.

Even though the plot was hatched in July and Gupta was arrested while passing through Czechia, the first public announcement was made today.

According to the Washington Post, the Biden dumpster fire brought up the matter to the Indian government.

“[Secretary of State Antony Blinken] underscored that India needed to investigate [the plot] and hold those responsible accountable, and that the United States needed an assurance that this would not happen again,” said a senior administration official.

Within a week of Sullivan’s meeting, Burns flew to India to deliver the same message to his counterpart, Ravi Sinha. Biden, in a meeting with Modi at the Group of 20 summit in September, emphasized the seriousness of the issue “and the potential repercussions for the bilateral relationship were similar threats to persist,” the official said.

The fix seems to be in.

“There’s little to be gained diplomatically from attempting to shame this Indian government and lots to lose,” said Daniel Markey, a senior adviser on South Asia at the United States Institute of Peace. The relationship is fundamentally one of shared interests — such as countering China — not shared values, he said. Emphasizing the latter “forces the administration to answer questions that are increasingly uncomfortable.”

This is the price of weakness. China is running police stations in the United States (Turns out There Are at Least 6 More of Those Chinese 'Police Stations' Operating in the US – RedState). and has inserted government agents into the stream of Chinese students attending American universities to monitor the activities of their peers, and to talent spot for potential Americans who could be recruited. Even if India is sort of an ally, they can't be allowed to hunt down dissidents or troublemakers on our streets.