FBI Warns Sikh Separatist Pannun of an 'Imminent' Threat Ahead of Canada Referendum
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the target of a foiled 2023 murder-for-hire plot, says agents visited his New York home Thursday. The threat is tied to potential travel to Edmonton for a vote on an independent Khalistan.
Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the target of a foiled 2023 assassination plot allegedly directed by a former Indian intelligence official, told CBS News on Thursday that he faces new threats to his life and that the FBI is investigating. Pannun, a vocal critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said FBI agents visited his New York City home earlier that day to warn him of what he called an "imminent threat to my life."
The agents told Pannun they are following leads and that the threat is connected to potential travel to Canada to take part in a referendum, but they did not give him further details. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His organization, Sikhs for Justice, plans a non-binding vote in Edmonton on Oct. 18 on whether the northern Indian state of Punjab should be declared independent and renamed "Khalistan." Sikhs have been invited to vote on the measure.
In a statement, Pannun said the question is not whether he "survives another assassination plot." He said the question is whether the Sikh people's right to self-determination "can be stopped through assassination threats. It cannot."
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan previously charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta and former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav with plotting to kill Pannun, a dual American and Canadian citizen. Gupta pleaded guilty in February to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is set to be sentenced in November, and Pannun is expected to speak at the sentencing.
The plot against Pannun unfolded at the same time that another prominent Sikh separatist and friend of his, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was gunned down by assassins outside his gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, in June 2023. In September 2023, Canadian officials said they had evidence linking the killing to Indian government agents, which they called a violation of Canada's sovereignty. India has denied involvement in Nijjar's killing and in the attempt on Pannun's life, and it labels Sikh separatists "terrorists" who it says threaten India's security.
This is not the first warning this year. Pannun said the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police contacted him in August and September about other, separate threats. He said those warnings began not long after federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced criminal charges in July against a prominent leader of the Indian organized criminal group known as "Bishnoi" and eight associates, tying them to Nijjar's 2023 assassination.
According to the indictment, Bishnoi was arrested by Indian authorities in 2015 but kept running a global crime syndicate from his prison cell. His childhood friend, Satinderjit Singh Brar, allegedly directed the group's North American operations and is accused in the indictment of ordering the assassination.
The new warning raises the stakes around Sunday's vote in Edmonton, and it adds to a string of law enforcement alerts about Pannun that began in the summer. The FBI has not publicly described the threat or who may be behind it, and Pannun has not said whether he will travel to Canada for the referendum.
