US Uncovers India’s Global Assassination Network

This DOJ revelation is a bombshell because it pushes the issue way past just India and Pakistan trading accusations. What came out in US court is that prosecutors documented a plot to assassinate Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, and the details are direct. They’ve named Nikhil Gupta and Vikash Yadav, with Yadav tied to Indian intelligence, and the evidence makes it clear this was not a one-off job. It looks like an organized strategy, not some rogue act.

What makes this so heavy is the pattern. Canada is still dealing with the fallout from the 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which Ottawa linked to India. Now the US is saying there was an actual murder for hire scheme on American soil, with prosecutors presenting WhatsApp chats, emails, and digital trails as proof.

And they didn’t stop there, and records show Sikh activists in Nepal, Pakistan, the UK, Germany, Australia, even the UAE were being watched or listed as potential targets. That suggests a global campaign to silence dissent, not just a couple of operations that have gone wrong.

From an international law perspective, it’s a serious breach. Plotting to kill people abroad directly violates the principle of sovereignty that the UN Charter is built on, and it tramples over human rights treaties that protect exiles and refugees. It also undermines the whole idea of global norms. States can’t credibly call for rule based order if they’re simultaneously running extrajudicial hits overseas. For countries like the US, it hits even harder. It is not only about an ally crossing the line, but also about a foreign intelligence service trying to carry out political assassinations inside America. That’s not something Washington can quietly brush aside.

Diplomatically, it’s a ticking time bomb. Canada had already clashed with New Delhi over Nijjar’s death, and now the US a much bigger partner is in the same boat. Other nations with large Sikh diasporas are suddenly on alert, wondering if similar plots could be unfolding in their own communities. For Washington, this isn’t a minor irritation. It challenges the basic trust that underpins the US India relationship, a relationship that until now was being built up as central to balancing China’s rise in Asia.

And then there’s Pakistan. For years, Islamabad has been calling out India for extraterritorial assassinations and most of the time it was dismissed as propaganda. With the DOJ putting evidence on record, those warnings now look like they were rooted.

This gives Pakistan a stronger platform internationally, letting it frame India’s actions as state backed terrorism rather than just political rivalry.

The hard part is figuring out what comes next. If countries let this go, it risks setting a precedent that state sponsored killings abroad are just another tool in the playbook of foreign policy. If they push back too aggressively, they risk breaking ties with India, which many Western governments see as strategically important. It’s the old tension between principle and geopolitics that do you enforce international law, or do you make exceptions when it’s convenient?

Either way, what’s come out is bigger than just Sikh activists being targeted. It’s about whether the international system can hold even powerful states accountable, or whether the rules are only enforced when it’s easy. That’s the real weight of this scandal that it’s less about one community and more about whether the world lets assassinations become normalized as a political weapon.