In an interview to discuss the April 29 story in the Washington Post, which he was one of the authors of, which reveals details of the alleged attempted assassination of one of the leaders of the Khalistan movement, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, whom India considers a terrorist, and which is alleged to be a result of a plot hatched in India, Gerry Shih has said that it has “the hallmark of Indian state sanction”.

The Post says: “U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel”.

Shih reveals that American agencies are less confident of any role played by India’s NSA, Ajit Doval, in the alleged attempted Pannun assassination.

This raises the question as to what, if anything, did the Prime Minister know.

Gerry Shih made clear that the United States is not the only country that has expressed concern about RAW. His article reveals that Australia, Germany and Britain have had “clashes” between RAW and domestic security services and “RAW officers and agents have faced arrest, expulsion and reprimand” in these countries. In 2014-15, when Samant Goel was RAW Station Chief in London, “Britain’s domestic secret services delivered warnings to Goel” on many occasions. Shih believes they even considered expelling him but, in the end, did not do so.

Shih’s article reveals that “A US delegation that travelled to New Delhi several weeks ago for an update on the probe (into the Pannun matter) … returned with little evidence of meaningful progress”. He says the US is frustrated even dissatisfied with the rate of progress made by the Indian side in its investigation.

Gerry Shih refutes Randhir Jaiswal the official spokesman’s claim that the Washington Post story is “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations”. He also refutes that its “irresponsible”. He says The Post had given the Indian government sufficient and ample opportunity to respond to their story and would have carried their response had it been made available to them before publishing.

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