Days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a three-day visit to the United States, the White House officials met a group of pro-Khalistan Sikh activists.
According to reports, the meeting took place inside the White House complex on Thursday 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).
The officials have assured the Sikh activists of protection from any acts of “transnational aggression” on its soil.
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In a post on X on Friday, Pritpal Singh, founder of the American Sikh Caucus Committee, 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.
Interestingly, the meeting was initiated by the White House. While no other details of the dialogue were immediately available, news agency PTI claimed that it’s the first time the National Security Council has held a meeting with these Sikh activists and Sikh separatists.
The White House’s move comes amid India’s concerns that both the US and Canada have been giving shelter to Khalistani separatists. While New Delhi has been accusing these groups of acting against the national interest from the foreign soil, Canada has defended them, terming it as their “freedom of speech”.
Earlier this week, Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had filed a civil lawsuit against the Government of India and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval after which the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued summons in the case.
The lawsuit was filed in an alleged foiled plot to kill Pannun who holds dual US and Canadian citizenship.
India has designated Pannun as a terrorist. On Friday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at four locations in Punjab as part of its probe in a terror-conspiracy case involving Pannun and the Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a banned organisation associated with him.