Alleged Indian Murder Plot What We Know The Charges Activist Named as Target How the Suspected Plot Was Foiled Why Would India Take the Risk?

       Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Supported by

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Alleged Plot to Kill Sikh Separatist Highlights Thorn in India’s Side

       The charges are rooted in a decades-old dispute over the demand by some Sikhs for a sovereign state known as Khalistan carved out of northern India.

       Share full article

       104

       Read in app

       Members of the Sikh community protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in Washington in 2020. Credit...Drew Angerer/Getty Images

       By Sameer Yasir

       Reporting from New Delhi

       Dec. 1, 2023

       Get it sent to your inbox.

       The federal indictment this week of an Indian citizen in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme targeting a Sikh separatist in New York threatens to damage ties between the United States and India just as the Biden administration has been courting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

       The charges are rooted in a decades-old dispute: the demand by some Sikhs for a sovereign state known as Khalistan carved out of northern India, which the Modi government opposes.

       In addition to directing the unsuccessful plot in New York, the federal indictment said, an Indian government official organized the killing of a Sikh separatist in Canada who was shot in June by masked gunmen outside a temple in Vancouver.

       Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

       Sameer Yasir is a reporter based in New Delhi. He joined The Times in 2020. More about Sameer Yasir

       A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 3, 2023, Section A , Page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: Long Dispute At the Center Of Tensions . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

       Read 104 Comments

       Share full article

       104

       Read in app

       Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Comments 104 Alleged Plot to Kill Sikh Separatist Highlights Thorn in India’s Side Skip to Comments The comments section is closed. To submit a letter to the editor for publication, write to letters@nytimes.com.