NIA seizes digital data in operations spread across 14 locations in north India.
NEW DELHI
In a wave of raids, the NIA has started tightening the noose on Punjab-based sympathisers and supporters of assailants who attacked the Consulate General of India in San Francisco in March and July and seized digital data in operations spread across 14 locations in north India.
The action comes at a time when the Indian government is believed to be examining inputs and media reports which claimed that American authorities thwarted a plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, a dual American and Canadian citizen, on US soil. The Indian agencies have ruled out any role in the alleged plot and the Narendra Modi government is reported to have expressed surprise and concern over it, while offering to investigate the matter.
The US agencies’ inputs over Pannu’s now-foiled assassination plot have come just two months after Canada said that there were “credible” allegations linking Indian agents to the killing of Canada-based Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In that killing incident also, Canada had raised the suspicion of an Indian agent’s involvement.
Like in the case of Pannu wherein New Delhi has denied any knowledge of the alleged plot to eliminate the Sikh separatist, the Indian government had denied a hand in Nijjar’s killing and sought additional information from Canada.
When Canadian PM Justin Trudeau tried to blame Indian agents for Nijjar’s killing in September, New Delhi dismissed the allegation and said that this was not government policy. The controversy had led to a diplomatic crisis between India and Canada. As part of its continuing investigations into the attacks on the Consulate General of India, San Francisco, NIA raided 14 locations across Punjab and Haryana. The action was in connection with the case registered under provisions of trespass, vandalism, damage to public property and attempts to cause hurt to the Consulate officials and set the Consulate building on fire through acts of arson.
An NIA team had visited San Francisco in August to investigate the incidents of attacks on the Consulate through violent acts of arson and vandalism leading to fear among the Consulate staff and the community. The probe agency had crowd sourced information to identify and collect information about US-based entities and individuals involved in these violent incidents.
An official said the agency has already identified certain individuals who were part of the conspiracy behind the repeated attacks. These include the attackers and many of their associates, who are both Indian and foreign nationals.
Meanwhile, the locations raided by NIA in Punjab earlier this week included places in districts of Moga, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Mohali and Patiala. In Haryana, the investigators raided locations in Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar.
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco was attacked on March 19 by a group of assailants who committed criminal trespass, damaged public property, and attacked officials of the Consulate. Prior to this attack, on the same day, some attackers attempted to set the Consulate building on fire by sprinkling inflammable substances early in the morning. Subsequently on 2 July, at midnight, a few persons attempted to set the Consulate building on fire.
The NIA action against anti-India elements based abroad came close to the agency registering a case against ‘listed individual terrorist’ Pannun over his latest viral video threatening the passengers flying and Air India Airlines with a global blockade and closure of the operations of the airline from 19 November. The NIA has booked Pannun under sections 120B, 153A & 506 of the IPC and sections 10, 13, 16, 17, 18, 18B & 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Pannun, the self-proclaimed “General Counsel” of the outlawed “unlawful Association”, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), is in the eye of the storm yet again following the release and circulation of video messages on various social media platforms urging the Sikhs not to fly on Air India planes on and after 19 November claiming threat to their lives if they flew on Air India.
Pannun has been under NIA lens since 2019, when the anti-terror agency registered its first case against him. In September 2023, the NIA had confiscated his share of the house and land of the listed terrorist in Amritsar (Punjab) and Chandigarh UT. Non-Bailable warrants of arrest were issued against Pannun by the NIA Special Court on 3 February 2021 and he was declared a “Proclaimed Offender (PO)” on 29 November 2022.