White House officials meet Sikh activists before PM Modi's US visit
Washington (PTI): 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.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
