A United States panel said on Friday that it was deeply concerned about India’s “transnational repression against religious minorities”, referring to allegations surrounding the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar as well as an alleged plot to kill another Sikh separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The statement was made by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent American government agency that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion and makes policy suggestions to the White House. The panel’s suggestions are not binding.

The commission on Friday urged the US Department of State to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern, a recommendation that it has also been making in its annual reports since 2020.

“The Indian government’s alleged involvement in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the United States are deeply troubling, and represent a severe escalation of India’s efforts to silence religious minorities and human rights defenders both within its country and abroad,” Stephen Schneck, the commissioner of the United States panel on religious freedom said.

Nijjar – a supporter of Khalistan, an independent Sikh nation sought by some groups – was killed by masked gunmen on June 18 near Vancouver.

On September 18, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Canadian parliament that intelligence agencies were actively pursuing “credible allegations” tying agents of the Indian government to Nijjar’s killing. India rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd and motivated”.

On November 29, the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, also announced that it had filed “murder-for-hire charges” against an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta in connection with his alleged participation in a thwarted plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader. Though the statement did not name the leader, a report in the Financial Times on November 23 identified him as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

India said it has constituted a high-level inquiry committee to examine the inputs from the United States.

Also read: US allegations of foiled murder plot only bolster Narendra Modi’s strongman image at home

‘Online harassment campaigns intended to target activists abroad’

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also alleged that Indian authorities used spyware and online harassment campaigns to target and intimidate journalists and activists abroad advocating on behalf of religious minorities.

It took note of an online campaign against Wall Street Journal journalist Sabrina Siddiqui, who asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi a question at a press conference in Washington in June. It said that she was targeted after Amit Malviya, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s social media cell, made comments about her.

Malviya had claimed that the Wall Street Journal reporter’s question was motivated and that she was given a fitting answer by Modi.

Siddiqui had pointed out in her question that several human rights groups have accused the Modi government of discriminating against religious minorities and taking action to silence its critics.

In response, Modi had defended the secular roots of Indian democracy. “There is absolutely no space for discrimination...And when you talk of democracy, if there are no human values and there is no humanity, there are no human rights, then it’s not a democracy,” he said.

On June 26, the White House had said that the online harassment of Siddiqui was completely unacceptable.

On Friday, David Curry, also a commissioner with the United States panel on religious freedom, said that authorities in India have used “draconian legislation like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and anti-conversion laws” to crack down on minorities, journalists, and activists.

“Extending this repression to target religious minorities from India living abroad, including intimidation tactics against journalists, is especially dangerous and cannot be ignored,” he said.