Who is U.S.-Canadian lawyer Gurpatwant Pannun, alleged target of murder plot?
CTV
Lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is at the heart of an alleged international plot that U.S. prosecutors say targeted him for assassination and was orchestrated by an Indian government employee.
A decade ago this month, lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his friend Hardeep Singh Nijjar were in Geneva to deliver a petition calling on the United Nations to declare widespread killings of Sikhs in India in 1984 a genocide.
Pannun says the pair had travelled to Sikh temples throughout Canada for years, starting around 2009, to gather support for the effort.
Today, Nijjar is dead, gunned down outside his gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., last June. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says “credible allegations” have linked Nijjar's killing to India's government.
Pannun, meanwhile, is at the heart of an alleged international plot that U.S. prosecutors say targeted him for assassination and was orchestrated by an Indian government employee.
An indictment unsealed in New York on Wednesday says Indian national Nikhil Gupta, 52, was recruited by the Indian official to arrange the killing. The alleged target isn't named in the document, but has previously been identified by U.S. officials as Pannun.
For years, Pannun - who says he's a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S. - has been a thorn in the side of New Delhi, which regards him as a terrorist for his activities in support of an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan.
In turn, the New York-based lawyer is known for fiery social media posts denouncing India's government that have drawn attention from authorities in Canada.
