India taking this seriously: US official over report on assassination plot of Sikh separatist leader
Washington (PTI): India is taking the allegations regarding the assassination plot of Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US seriously, the White House has said but refrained from commenting on the FBI probe into the matter and the criminal case filed by the Department of Justice.
The remarks by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday came amid an investigative media report claiming that a RAW official identified as Vikram Yadav was involved in the assassination plot of Pannun in the US and the move was approved by the then Indian spy agency chief Samant Goel.
Pannun is one of the main leaders of the Khalistan movement and the legal advisor and spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice, which aims to promote the idea of a separate Sikh state. The Indian government has declared Pannun a terrorist.
Replying to questions on the report by The Washington Post, Jean-Pierre said an investigation is underway and the Department of Justice (DOJ) is running a criminal investigation.
"So anything specific to that I would have to refer you to the DOJ," she said.
The White House press secretary asserted that India is an important strategic partner of the United States and "we are pursuing an ambitious agenda to expand our cooperation in several areas".
About the investigative report on alleged the assassination plot, Jean-Pierre said, "We've been really consistent about that and have laid that out multiple times, whether it's a meeting here with the prime minister or a meeting abroad."
"This is a serious matter and we're taking that very very seriously. The Government of India has been very clear with us that they are taking this seriously and will investigate," Jean-Pierre said.
"We expect accountability from the government based on that. But we are going to continue to raise our concerns. That's not going to stop. We're going to continue to raise our concerns directly, with the Indian government," the press secretary added.
The alleged plot to kill Pannun in the US coincided with the June 18 fatal shooting of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey in Canada's British Columbia province in June last year. That operation was also linked to Yadav, according to Western officials.
Both plots took place amid a wave of violence in Pakistan, where at least 11 Sikh or Kashmiri separatists living in exile and labelled terrorists by the Narendra Modi government have been killed over the past two years, the report said.
Senior Indian government officials named in the Washington Post report did not respond to it seeking comment, the daily said.
However, when asked about the investigation into the allegations made by the US in the Pannun case, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last week, "We have set up a high-level committee. The committee is looking into information that was shared by the American side with us, because they also equally impact our national security."
The high-level committee is looking into those aspects and that is where it is right now, Jaiswal said in New Delhi on April 25.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on April 1 had said that India's national security interests are involved in its investigation into the alleged involvement of a government official in the assassination plot aimed at Khalistani extremist Pannun.
The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration has refrained from making charges against Yadav.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.
Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.
Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
