US media names Raw officer’s name in Pannun’s assassination attempt

The Washington Post alleges Vikram Yadav, formerly linked with RAW, plotted to target Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US.

The plot to kill Pannun was approved by former RAW chief Samant Goel and was led by officer Vikram Yadav, according to an article published in the Washington Post in the United States.

The journal said that Yadav was the “intelligence service officer from India” who gave “final orders to a hired hit team to kill” the Sikh politician, who was one of the “most vocal critics” of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The results date back to June 2023, during Modi’s visit to the US, when he had supper at the White House with President Joe Biden.

Pannun, the general counsel of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) and a pro-Khalistan Sikh leader, is one of the high-profile leaders in the community and has remained at risk of being eliminated, particularly in the wake of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing June 18, 2023.

Pannun, like slain Canadian citizen Nijjar, has been promoting the idea of a separate Sikh state for his community residing in India and has been declared a “terrorist” by the Indian government.

Pannun, in an interview last year, said he was not scared and would not be deterred by India’s plots against him.

“Just like Canadian Citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s assassination by the Indian agents on Canadian soil was a challenge to Canada’s sovereignty, the threat to an American citizen on American soil is a challenge to America’s sovereignty, and I trust that the Biden Administration is more than capable to handle any such challenge,” he said, responding to a question in the interview.

The US publication, owned by American tech tycoon Jeff Bezos, revealed it is probing a “global surge in such campaigns of cross-border repression, as well as the global forces leading India and other nations to employ tactics normally associated with the world’s most repressive governments.”

White House takes report ‘very seriously’

Meanwhile, the White House maintained that it was taking the Washington Post story “very seriously”.

During Monday’s briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Department of Justice is investigating the matter.

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