THE United States has raised concerns with India that its government may have known of a plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader on US soil, prompting New Delhi to set up a high-level inquiry, an Indian official said yesterday.

Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement that his country “takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue.”

The US government said it had raised the issue with New Delhi, but it declined to comment on when or how US officials became aware of the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is considered a terrorist by the Indian government, as well as how the alleged assassination plan was derailed.

In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that there were credible allegations that India’s government may have had links to the assassination in his country of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India dismissed the accusation, but Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat and India responded with an equivalent measure.

Mr Pannun, general counsel with Sikhs for Justice, has been a leading organiser of the so-called Khalistan referendum, inviting Sikhs worldwide to vote on whether India’s Punjab state should become independent.