- Friday, December 13, 2024
The request was made by India’s elite anti-terrorism agency National Investigation Agency during talks with Christopher Wray, director of the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, in New Delhi.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Indian government has asked the Joe Biden administration of the US to share intelligence of Sikh separatists living on American soil amid a probe into an allegation that an Indian official was involved in a plot to murder a Sikh separatist there.
An Indian official confirmed this on Tuesday (12), Reuters reported.
The request was made by India’s elite anti-terrorism agency National Investigation Agency (NIA) during talks with Christopher Wray, director of the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the official, who works at the NIA and requested for his identity not to be revealed, said.
According to the official, New Delhi’s serious claim that Sikh separatists are operating against India from American soil was held in “greater detail by a team of internal security officials from both countries”.
“India has requested the U.S. officials to share inputs on suspected individuals who have in recent years been recruited and embedded in the separatist movement,” the official said, according to a Reuters report.
On Tuesday, the NIA issued a statement that Wray met NIA director general Dinkar Gupta and held talks on issues such as “the acts and activities of Terrorist-Organised Criminal Networks, ongoing investigations in the US in the attack on the Indian consulate in San Francisco, investigations of cyber-terror and cyber-crimes of various kinds”.
The spokesperson at the US embassy in India said meetings were underway between Wray and the Indian officials but could not share details at the time of writing this report.
North American nations such the US and Canada have accused Indian officials of involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders on their soil.
India and Canada are in the middle of a major diplomatic spat after the latter accused the former of being involved in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Surrey in British Columbia in June, an allegation that New Delhi strongly denied.
India has also said that Wray’s visit was not particularly related to the Sikh separatist’s case in the US and had been planned for some time.
Wray, during his three-day visit to India that kicked off on Monday (11), also met heads of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bureau, Research & Analysis Wing, India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval besides visiting the headquarters of Delhi Police.
