White House officials meet Sikh activists before PM Modi's US visit

Washington: White House officials have met a group of Sikh activists to assure them that the US government is committed to protecting Americans from any acts of transnational aggression on its soil, a community leader has said.

The meeting comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-day visit to the US during which he will attend the Quad summit in Delaware and address the 'Summit of the Future' at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Held inside the White House complex on Thursday, the meeting was attended by Pritpal Singh of the American Sikh Caucus Committee and representatives from the Sikh Coalition and Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDEF).

“Yesterday we had the chance to thank senior federal government officials for saving the lives of Sikh Americans and for vigilance in protecting our community. We asked them to do more, and we will hold them to their assurances that they will,” Pritpal Singh, founder of the American Sikh Caucus Committee told PTI on Friday.

In a social media post on X on Friday, Singh thanked the US officials for their vigilance in protecting Sikh Americans. “ "We will hold them to their assurances to do more to safeguard our community. Freedom and justice must prevail,” he said.

This is the first time that the National Security Council has held a meeting with these Sikh activists and Sikh separatists. No other details of the meeting were available.  The meeting was initiated by the White House.

Congressman Adam Schiff early this week introduced the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 which would require the Attorney General, in coordination with other relevant federal agencies, to report cases of transnational repression against people in the US.

“Through this bill, Congress sends a strong message to both allies and adversaries that violating the constitutional rights of Americans will not be tolerated,” SALDEF said.

Earlier this week, Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun filed a civil lawsuit against the Government of India and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval after which the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued summons in the case.

The lawsuit has been filed against the Government of India and Doval and Nikhil Gupta, who has been charged by federal prosecutors in an indictment unsealed in November last year with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Pannun.

Pannun holds dual US and Canadian citizenship, on American soil.