Washington:

The White House today met with a group of Sikhs who are sympathisers for the Khalistan movement hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to land in the United States for a three-day official visit. The White House assured them “protection from any transnational aggression on its soil”.

The White House said it is committed to “protecting American Citizens” from harm while they are within the borders of the United States.

This development comes amid concerns that Canada and the US are giving shelter and asylum to Khalistani separatists.

Groups aligned to the Khalistan separatist movement are banned in India and several of these organisations have carried out terrorist activities in the last few decades.

While the US has not made any official comment on “giving shelter” to such elements, Canada had called it their “freedom of speech”.

In response, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said, “India respects and practices freedom of speech, but freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to support separatism. It does not equate with freedom to threaten foreign diplomats or allow political space to elements advocating violence.”

“In any rule-based society, you would imagine that you would check people’s background, how they came, what passports they carried etc,” he had said.

“If you have people whose presence there was itself on very dubious documents, what does it say about you? It actually says that your vote-bank actually is more powerful than your rule of law,” Mr Jaishankar had said.

THE WHITE HOUSE MEETING

The meeting at White House took place hours before PM Modi was to land in the US to attend the Quad summit in Delaware and to address the ‘Summit of the Future’ event at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The meeting was held within the official White House complex and was attended by Pritpal Singh of the American Sikh Caucus Committee and representatives from the Sikh Coalition and Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDEF).

“Yesterday we had the chance to thank senior federal government officials for saving the lives of Sikh Americans and for vigilance in protecting our community. We asked them to do more, and we will hold them to their assurances that they will,” Pritpal Singh, founder of the American Sikh Caucus Committee told Press Trust of India.

In a social media post on X, Pritpal Singh thanked the US officials for their vigilance in protecting Sikh Americans.”

“We will hold them to their assurances to do more to safeguard our community. Freedom and justice must prevail,” he said.

This is the first time that the US National Security Council has held a meeting with Sikh separatists. No other details of the meeting are available yet.

What comes as a surprise is that the meeting was initiated by the White House.

US BRINGS NEW BILL

Earlier this week, US Congressman Adam Schiff introduced the ‘Transnational Repression Reporting Act 2024’ which requires the Attorney General, in coordination with other relevant federal agencies, to report cases of transnational repression against people in the United States.

“Through this bill, Congress sends a strong message to both allies and adversaries that violating the constitutional rights of Americans will not be tolerated,” Sikh group SALDEF which has openly supported Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and has blamed India for his killing.

LAWSUIT AGAINST INDIA AND NSA AJIT DOVAL

This week Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is taking shelter in the United States, had also filed a civil lawsuit against the Government of India and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval after which the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued summons in the case.

The summons names Government of India, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, former R&AW chief Samant Goel, R&AW agent Vikram Yadav, and an Indian national Nikhil Gupta, who has been charged by federal prosecutors in an indictment unsealed in November 2023 for allegedly “working with an Indian government employee” in the foiled plot to kill terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The summons sought a reply within 21 days.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has called it a “completely unwarranted case”, adding that “I invite your attention to the person who filed this.” He further said that Pannun’s “antecedent is well-known” and that he is from an unlawful organisation.

Pannun heads the radical Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) and is known to put out incendiary speeches and threats against Indian leaders and institutions. New Delhi designated him a terrorist in 2020.

US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has told NDTV that this matter will not affect India-US ties.

WHO IS GURPATWANT SINGH PANNUN

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is a designated Khalistani terrorist. He was born and raised in Khankot village on the outskirts of Amritsar.

Pannun has claimed responsibility for several terror incidents in India. In April 2023, in a video shared on social media, he openly threatened to harm Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Assam.

He founded the Khalistan separatist group SFJ in 2007. India banned the SFJ in 2019 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA for its anti-India activities. In 2020, Pannun was designated a terrorist.

Pannun holds a dual citizenship of the United States as well as Canada and is currently in the US. His banned separatist organisation operates out of New York.