"Irresponsible": India Slams Washington Post Claim On "Hit Team" In US

India has dismissed as "unwarranted and unsubstantiated" allegations made by The Washington Post that an Indian intelligence officer hired a hit team to kill US-based Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The report published on Sunday alleged US intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation to kill Pannun was approved by Samant Goel, the then chief of India's spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

"The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.

"There is an ongoing investigation of the high-level committee set up by the government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists, and others," Mr Jaiswal said.

"Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful," he said.

India has in recent times indicated it will pursue terrorists even if they escape to other countries. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said India will enter Pakistan to kill anyone who escapes over the border after trying to carry out terrorist activities in the country.

Mr Singh's comments came on April 5 after Britain's Guardian newspaper published a report alleging the Indian government killed 20 people in Pakistan since 2020 as part of a broader plan to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.

"If they run away to Pakistan, we will enter Pakistan to kill them," Mr Singh had said. "India always wants to maintain good relations with its neighbouring countries... But if anyone shows India the angry eyes again and again, comes to India and tries to promote terrorist activities, we will not spare them," Mr Singh said.

The US Justice Department had indicted an Indian national in the alleged foiled assassination plot. It alleged an Indian government employee (named CC-1), who was not identified in the indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan, recruited an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta to hire a hitman to allegedly carry out the assassination of the Sikh Separatist, which was foiled by US authorities.

Canada has also alleged Indian government agents were involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. India has regularly pointed out, however, that Canada has been consistently giving space to anti-India extremists.

"The nexus between organised crime, trafficking, and gun running and extremists at an international level is a serious issue for law enforcement agencies and organisations to consider, and it is precisely for that reason that a high-level committee has been constituted, and we will obviously be guided by its results," the MEA had said in December 2023.