US authorities are planning to take legal action against such groups based on criminal laws and has identified the individuals it intends to target….reports Asian Lite News
Khalistani organisations in the United States will no longer be labeled as “protesters,”.
The recent assaults on Indian diplomatic missions in US, including the most recent incident in which sympathizers attempted to set fire to the Indian consulate in San Francisco, will be considered acts of criminality, News 18 reported.
According to News 18 reports, the FBI is planning to take legal action against such groups based on criminal laws and has identified the individuals it intends to target.
Previously, the US has justified the activities of these pro-Khalistan groups as exercises of freedom of expression.
“The Government of India and intelligence agencies are actively engaging with their counterparts in the US government and FBI. Additionally, we intend to file a case in India regarding the attack, which will be investigated by a federal agency,” News18 quoted US official as saying.
His remarks came after two men dressed in dark clothes walked up to the gate of the Indian consulate in San Francisco on July 2, poured some kind of inflammable liquid on it from a container and set it on fire in a stunning breach of security as the same facility was attacked earlier in March. The fire department put out the fire before it could spread. No one was injured in the incident because of the timing of the incident, none of the staff was at hand and it was too early for public dealings.
Indian officials took up the incident locally with San Francisco authorities, the California government and, eventually, President Joe Biden’s administration.
Indian officials have taken up the incident with US authorities, specially the FBI, which is already investigating the March attack on the same mission. No one had been arrested in connection to the incident so far. Khalistani separatists had vandalised the mission in March in a breach of security so serious that it was condemned by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. The latest incident is being seen thus as part of a chain of serious attacks on Indian facilities in the US and there are worries that diplomats could be targeted next.(With inputs from IANS)
