NEW YORK: A foiled plot to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York, just days after another activist’s killing, was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada, according to US prosecutors.
In electronic communications and audio and video calls secretly recorded or obtained by US law enforcement, organizers of the plot talked last spring about plans to kill someone in California and at least three other people in Canada, in addition to the victim in New York, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
The goal was to kill at least four people in the two countries by June 29, and then more after that, prosecutors contend.
After Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist who had been exiled from India, was shot and killed outside a cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, one of the men charged with orchestrating the planned assassinations told a person he had hired as a hitman that he should act urgently to kill another activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
“We have so many targets,” Nikhil Gupta said in a recorded audio call, according to the indictment. “We have so many targets. But the good news is this, the good news is this: Now no need to wait.”
He urged the hitman to act quickly because Pannun, a US citizen living in New York, would likely be more cautious after Nijjar’s slaying.
“We got the go-ahead to go anytime, even today, tomorrow — as early as possible,” he told a go-between as he instructed the hitman to kill Pannun even if there were other people with him. “Put everyone down,” he said, according to the indictment.
The attack plans were foiled, prosecutors said, because the hitman was actually an undercover US agent.
The US attorney in Manhattan announced charges Wednesday against Gupta, and said in court papers that the plot to kill Pannun was directed by an official in the Indian government. That government official was not charged in the indictment or identified by name, but the court filing described him as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence.
Indian officials have denied any complicity in Nijjar’s slaying. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Wednesday that the Indian government had set up a high-level inquiry after US authorities raised concerns about the plot to kill Pannun.
Court filings revealed that even before Nijjar’s killing in Canada, US law enforcement officials had become aware of a plot against activists who were advocating for the secession from India of the northern Punjab state, where Sikhs are a majority.
US officials said they began investigating when Gupta, in his search for a hitman, contacted a narcotics trafficker who turned out to be a Drug Enforcement Administration informant.
Over the ensuing weeks, the pair communicated by phone, video and text messages, eventually looping in their hired assassin — the undercover agent.
The Indian government official told Gupta that he had a target in New York and a target in California, the indictment said. They ultimately settled on a $100,000 price and by June 3, Gupta was urging his criminal contact in America to “finish him brother, finish him, don’t take too much time .... push these guys, push these guys ... finish the job.”
During a June 9 call, Gupta told the narcotics trafficker that the murder of Pannun would change the hitman’s life because “we will give more bigger job more, more job every month, every month 2-3 job,” according to the indictment.
It was unclear from the indictment whether US authorities had learned anything about the specific plan to kill Nijjar before his ambush on June 18.
The indictment portrayed Gupta as boasting that he and his associates in India were behind both the Canadian and New York assassination plots. He allegedly told the Drug Enforcement Administration informant on June 12 that there was a “big target” in Canada and on June 16 told him: “We are doing their job, brother. We are doing their New York (and) Canada (job),” referring to individuals directing the plots from India.
After Nijjar was killed, Gupta told the informant that Nijjar was the target he had mentioned as the potential Canadian “job” and added: “We didn’t give to (the undercover agent) this job, so some other guy did this job ... in Canada.”
On June 30, Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic at the request of the United States after arriving there on a trip from India. Federal authorities have not said when he might be brought to the United States to face murder-for-hire and conspiracy charges. It was unclear who would provide legal representation if he arrives in the US
Pannun told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that he will continue his work.
“They will kill me. But I don’t fear the death,” he said.
He mocked India’s claim that it is conducting its own investigation into the assassination plots.
“The only thing, I think, (the) Indian government is going to investigate (is) why their hitman could not kill one person. That’s what they will be investigating,” he said.
Pannun said he rejects the Indian government’s decision to label him a terrorist.
“We are the one who are fighting India’s violence with the words. We are the one who are fighting India’s bullets with the ballot,” he said. “They are giving money, hundreds of thousands, to kill me. Let the world decide who is terrorist and who is not a terrorist.”
Some international affairs experts told the AP that it was unlikely the incidents would seriously damage the relationship between the US and India.
”In most cases, if Washington accuses a foreign government of staging an assassination on its soil, US relations with that government would plunge into deep crisis,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia institute. “But the relationship with India is a special case. Trust and goodwill are baked into the relationship, thanks to rapidly expanding cooperation and increasingly convergent interests.”
Derek Grossman, Indo-Pacific analyst at the Rand Corp., said the Biden administration has demonstrated that it is prioritizing the need to leverage India as part of its strategy to counter Chinese power.
“I think publicizing the details of the thwarted plot will have very little, if any, impact on the deepening US-India strategic partnership,” he said.
US prosecutors say plots to assassinate Sikh leaders were part of a campaign of planned killings
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US prosecutors say plots to assassinate Sikh leaders were part of a campaign of planned killings
- Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Sikh activist exiled from India, was shot and killed outside cultural center in British Columbia in June
- US prosecutors said the goal was to kill at least four people in the two countries by June 29, and then more after that
Moldova holds key polls on EU future amid fears of Russian meddling
- The elections are a litmus test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu
- ncumbent President Maia Sandu cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022
The elections are a litmus test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu
Police have made hundreds of arrests after discovering a massive vote-buying scheme, suspected to be tainted by Russian cash
Incumbent President Maia Sandu cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022
CHISINAU: Moldovans vote on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling in the two key electoral tests amid the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The elections are a litmus test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term in the country of 2.6 million.
Police have made hundreds of arrests after discovering a massive vote-buying scheme, warning this week that up to a quarter of the ballots cast could be tainted by Russian cash.
“Our country is at a crossroads... A group of thieves are trying to deceive people, promise them money, give them false information,” Prime Minister Dorin Recean said, urging Moldovans “to be vigilant.”
Sandu, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
She has repeatedly sounded the alarm on Russian efforts to interfere in the vote — a claim Moscow has rejected.
Washington also issued a fresh warning this week, while the EU passed new sanctions on several Moldovans.
Sandu, 52, a former World Bank economist, is the clear favorite in the race.
But with only 35.8 percent of voter support, she is predicted to fall short of the majority needed to avoid a second round on November 3, according to the latest polls by the WatchDog think tank.
Her 10 competitors include Alexandr Stoianoglo, a 57-year-old former prosecutor supported by the pro-Russian Socialists, who is polling at nine percent.
Renato Usatii, a 45-year-old former mayor of Moldova’s second largest city of Balti, is predicted to win 6.4 percent.
Polls open at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and close at 9:00 pm, with partial results expected from around 10:00 pm.
For the referendum, 55.1 percent of those surveyed have said they would vote “yes,” while 34.5 percent said they were set on “no.”
The referendum asks if the constitution should be modified to include joining the EU as an objective. The 27-member bloc began membership talks with Chisinau this June.
For any result to be valid, participation must reach at least 33 percent. Some pro-Russian parties have campaigned for a boycott.
“The future of Moldova will depend on what the people will choose... I hope we will take firm steps toward the European Union,” accountant Lidia Ceban said.
Sandu has been touring the country to say that joining the EU will help improve life in one of Europe’s poorest nations.
“The fate of our country, for many decades to come, rests on this (Sunday’s) decision,” Sandu said at a campaign event.
Sandu’s critics say she has not done enough to fight inflation and reform the judiciary.
In his campaign, Stoianoglo — who was fired as prosecutor by Sandu — has called for the “restoration of justice,” while Usatii has said he is the best choice as he is “the only one who is not controlled either by the East or the West.”
Fears of Russian interference are looming large.
Millions of dollars from Russia to corrupt voters were funnelled into the country by people affiliated to Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman and former politician, police said earlier this month.
The “unprecedented” scheme could taint up to 300,000 ballots, according to police.
Convicted in absentia last year for fraud, Shor regularly accuses Moldova of being a “police state” and the West’s “obedient puppet.”
“Russia is hard at work. They have never (before) put in so much money,” Romanian historian Armand Gosu, who specializes in Russia and the former Soviet space, told AFP.
In addition to the vote buying, hundreds of young people were found to have been trained in Russia and the Balkans to create “mass disorder” in Moldova, including in tactics to provoke law enforcement, according to police.
G7 defense ministers concerned by attacks on peacekeepers, vow Kyiv support
- “We are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to UNIFIL’s security,” ministers’ said in a statement
- They also underscored the group’s “intent to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, including military assistance in the short and long term”
NAPLES, Italy: G7 defense ministers on Saturday met against the backdrop of multiple ongoing military conflicts, expressing concern over the escalation in Lebanon while pledging “unwavering support” for Ukraine.
Italy, holding the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven countries, organized the body’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defense, staged in the southern city of Naples that is home to a NATO base.
At the top of the agenda was Russia’s war against Ukraine, now in its third year.
“We underscore our intent to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, including military assistance in the short and long term,” read the G7 defense ministers’ final statement that pledged “unwavering support.”
But the G7 defense ministers — from Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Japan, Canada and the United States — also warned of the dangers of further intensification in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, where the United Nations has blamed Israel for strikes on UN peacekeepers.
“We are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to UNIFIL’s security,” read a final statement from the ministers.
They also called on Iran to stop supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met a Hamas representative in Istanbul on Saturday, according to the IRNA official news agency.
The many, concurrent conflicts “highlight a deteriorated security framework with forecasts for the near future that cannot be positive,” said Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto at the start of the one-day meeting.
Those conflicts include instability in sub-Saharan Africa and growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.
The summit came two days after Israel announced it had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that triggered the devastating retaliatory war in Gaza.
Also in attendance were NATO chief Mark Rutte and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. Both echoed the words of US President Joe Biden that the death of Sinwar could mark an opportunity to bring about the end of hostilities.
“Certainly after the killing of Yahya Sinwar, a new perspective is open and we have to use it in order to reach a ceasefire, to release the remaining hostages and to look for a political perspective,” Borrell told journalists.
The morning session included discussions over recent strikes on UN peacekeepers UNIFIL in Lebanon, where Israel is also at war with Hamas ally Hezbollah.
Borrell suggested that the peacekeepers’ mandate should be beefed up by the UN Security Council to give them more scope to act amid repeated attacks on their positions, which they blame on Israeli forces.
“They cannot act by themselves, it is certainly a limited role,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Borrell wrote on social media that “a more robust mandate for UNIFIL” was needed.
In Lebanon on Friday, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni slammed as “unacceptable” the recent strikes on UNIFIL.
Italy has around 1,000 troops in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which has soldiers from more than 50 countries.
The G7’s pledge of continued support for Ukraine comes as the country enters its third winter at war.
It is suffering battlefield losses in the east and faces the prospect of reduced US military support should Donald Trump be elected to the White House next month.
Biden urged NATO allies during a visit to Berlin on Friday not to step down in backing Ukraine. Supporters of Kyiv “cannot let up,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, under mounting pressure from Western allies to forge a winning strategy against Russia, on Thursday presented what he called a “victory plan” to the European Union and NATO.
Its main thrust is a call for immediate NATO membership, deemed unfeasible by alliance members.
It also seeks the clearance to strike military targets inside Russia with long-range weapons, and an undefined “non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” on Ukrainian territory.
Another worry for Ukraine are reports, based on South Korean intelligence, that North Korea is deploying large numbers of troops to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
NATO was not as yet able to confirm that intelligence, Rutte said on Friday.
Outside the meeting, in the streets of Naples, demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and the keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle against Israel. Some protesters clashed with police.
Ukraine launches drones at Moscow, western Russia, regional officials say
- Russia’s air-defense units destroyed at least one drone flying toward Moscow, said the mayor of the Russian capital
- Hours earlier, the mayor of Kyiv said Ukraine's air-defense units were trying to repel a new Russian air attack on the Ukrainiancapital
KYIV: Ukraine launched a series of drones targeting Moscow and western Russia, regional officials said early on Sunday, adding that there were no injuries or significant damage reported.
Russia’s air-defense units destroyed at least one drone flying toward Moscow, the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app.
According to preliminary information, there was no damage or casualties where debris fell in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region.
Drone debris sparked several short-lived fires in the Lipetsk region in southwestern Russia, the region’s governor said on Telegram. There were no injuries reported, he added.
Hours earlier, the mayor of Kyiv said Ukraine's air-defense units were in operation trying to repel a new Russian air attack on the capital city.
“Stay in shelters!” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.
Governors of the Bryansk and Oryol region, also in western parts of Russia, reported that air defense units destroyed several drones there.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Kyiv has often said in the past that its air attacks target infrastructure key to Russia’s war efforts and are a response to Moscow’s continued air attacks on Ukraine.
Russian officials often do not disclose full extent of damage inflicted by the drone attacks, especially on military, transport or energy infrastructure.
US investigating unauthorized release of classified documents on Israel attack plans
- The documents note that Israel continues to move military assets in place to conduct a military strike against Iran
- Marked top secret, the documents were posted online to Telegram and first reported by CNN and Axios
WASHINGTON: The US is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three US officials told The Associated Press. A fourth US official said the documents appear to be legitimate.
The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and note that Israel continues to move military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the “Five Eyes,” which are the US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted online to Telegram and first reported by CNN and Axios. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained — including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the US intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack — and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials said. As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said.
The documents emerged as the US has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a ceasefire in Gaza, and has likewise urgently cautioned Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon and risk a wider regional war. However, Israel’s leadership has repeatedly stressed it will not let Iran’s missile attack go unanswered.
In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not have further comment.
UK’s Starmer tells Netanyahu ‘alarmed’ by drone attack near residence
- Starmer also “stressed the importance of getting much more aid into Gaza” it said, echoing similar calls made Friday in the joint statement he made along with the leaders of France, Germany and the US
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu that he was “alarmed to hear about the drone launched toward” his residence earlier Saturday, the UK leader’s office said.
Netanyahu has accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of trying to assassinate him, after his office said a drone was launched Saturday toward his residence in the central town of Caesarea while he and his wife were elsewhere.
Iran’s United Nations mission later said that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group — armed and financed by Tehran — was behind the drone attack, which Netanyahu’s office has noted caused no injuries.
“The prime minister said he was alarmed to hear about the drone launched toward Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home this morning,” Starmer’s office said in a summary of the two leaders’ afternoon phone call.
“They discussed the situation in the Middle East following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who the prime minister said was a brutal terrorist and that the world is a better place without him,” it added.
London’s readout of the discussion noted they also talked about “the opportunity presented by Sinwar’s death to halt the fighting and get the hostages out.”
Starmer also “stressed the importance of getting much more aid into Gaza” it said, echoing similar calls made Friday in the joint statement he made along with the leaders of France, Germany and the US.
