New York
Prominent Sikh separatist says FBI has warned him of new threat on his life
NEW YORK (AP) — A prominent Sikh separatist said Tuesday that the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have warned him that he faces a new credible threat to his life even as a man from India faces sentencing later this year for a 2023 death plot against him.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for Sikhs For Justice, said he was warned by FBI agents who visited him Aug. 12 that he should not travel until the threat is resolved, and, if he does, the agency should be notified in advance of his plans.
He said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned him by telephone on Tuesday, though neither law enforcement agency gave any details about the plot that was uncovered. Messages seeking comment from both law enforcement agencies were not immediately returned.
Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, said he was warned according to the terms of a “Duty to Warn” law in the United States that obligates U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to notify individuals when they discover credible and specific threats of murder, severe bodily harm or kidnapping.
The new threat comes as Nikhil Gupta, a man from India who pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in February, awaits a Nov. 20 sentencing in Manhattan federal court for plotting in 2023 with others to assassinate Pannun.
The FBI has said Gupta was directed by an Indian government employee to carry out the killing. When Gupta tried, he unwittingly communicated with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman. Federal sentencing guidelines call for Gupta to spend at least two decades in prison.
Pannun, who advocates for the creation of the sovereign Sikh state and is considered a terrorist by the Indian government, said in a phone interview Tuesday that he was “unfazed and undaunted” by the attempts to silence him.
“I’m not afraid of their death threats,” he said, though he added that he hoped that the administrations of President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would confront Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over threats to U.S. and Canadian sovereignty.
“The Modi government is proceeding under the Trump administration without fear of any consequences,” he said.
Pannun has described himself as a Sikh human rights lawyer who is campaigning to turn Punjab into a place where “all religions will have equal rights.”
He said “Duty to Warn” advisories were issued by Canadian law enforcement officials to Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the ex-head of the Canadian chapter of the Khalistan Referendum, in the weeks before he was assassinated on June 18, 2023 in Surrey, British Columbia.
Pannun said the continued threats give him courage and confidence that his campaign and outspokenness is working.
“I’m going to continue, even at the cost of a bullet,” he said.
Washington
Democratic states file new lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s order limiting mail voting in midterms
Democratic-controlled states on Wednesday filed another lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit mail voting in this year’s midterm elections.
The action, filed by about two dozen states against the U.S. Postal Service, marked a new phase in the high-stakes litigation just two days after the Supreme Court ruled against them in a separate case, but did not say Trump’s order was legal.
The high court majority found the Democratic lawsuit was premature, but that was before the Republican administration issued a rule governing U.S. Postal Service delivery of mail ballots. Election officials warn it will be impossible to implement in the days before the first wave of mail ballots are sent out next week.
“Across the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections. Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans’ right to vote,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 25 Democratic attorneys general filing the lawsuit, said in a statement. “USPS has no authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail.”
Trump’s executive order remains barred from taking effect under a separate injunction that the administration argues needs to be immediately rescinded in light of the high court’s ruling in the previous Democratic state lawsuit. It also had succeeded in a third case filed in May in the District of Columbia, convincing a judge that it was too early to prevent its implementation of the executive order.
All previous challenges were filed before the administration published its mail ballot rule Friday night. The rule says that if states want their mail ballots delivered, they will need federal approval of the design of their envelopes and must give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them.
The White House has called the Postal Service plan “commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots” and said the administration would continue to work to implement it to boost “the safety and security of our elections.”
The Postal Service said it would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.
National Democrats on Tuesday cited the rule in asking the federal judge in the Washington case to block Trump’s order after he declined to do so last spring, saying the administration at the time had not taken concrete action. In Boston, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also found that the administration moving forward with the mail ballot rule had violated a separate injunction she had placed on the Postal Service prohibiting it from enacting Trump’s order, although she did not take any action against the government.
Talwani, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, had issued the injunction against Trump’s executive order in the prior Democratic state case, which is the one the Supreme Court overturned on Monday. She has yet to act on the administration’s urging her to revoke her second injunction. It was issued Aug. 11 in a case against the executive order and was filed by the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups while the Supreme Court was considering the administration’s appeal of the judge’s first order.
Trump has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his 2020 election loss and is disproportionately used by Democrats as a result of Trump’s condemnations. Since returning to power, Trump has tried to claim authority over election rules, saying he thinks Republicans should “take over” vote counting in Democratic areas.
He issued his first election executive order just months after retaking office, attempting to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, among other changes. He has also been pushing a sweeping election bill that has stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Democrats and even some within his own party.
Prominent Sikh separatist says FBI has warned him of new threat on his life
NEW YORK (AP) — A prominent Sikh separatist said Tuesday that the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have warned him that he faces a new credible threat to his life even as a man from India faces sentencing later this year for a 2023 death plot against him.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for Sikhs For Justice, said he was warned by FBI agents who visited him Aug. 12 that he should not travel until the threat is resolved, and, if he does, the agency should be notified in advance of his plans.
He said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned him by telephone on Tuesday, though neither law enforcement agency gave any details about the plot that was uncovered. Messages seeking comment from both law enforcement agencies were not immediately returned.
Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, said he was warned according to the terms of a “Duty to Warn” law in the United States that obligates U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to notify individuals when they discover credible and specific threats of murder, severe bodily harm or kidnapping.
The new threat comes as Nikhil Gupta, a man from India who pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in February, awaits a Nov. 20 sentencing in Manhattan federal court for plotting in 2023 with others to assassinate Pannun.
The FBI has said Gupta was directed by an Indian government employee to carry out the killing. When Gupta tried, he unwittingly communicated with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman. Federal sentencing guidelines call for Gupta to spend at least two decades in prison.
Pannun, who advocates for the creation of the sovereign Sikh state and is considered a terrorist by the Indian government, said in a phone interview Tuesday that he was “unfazed and undaunted” by the attempts to silence him.
“I’m not afraid of their death threats,” he said, though he added that he hoped that the administrations of President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would confront Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over threats to U.S. and Canadian sovereignty.
“The Modi government is proceeding under the Trump administration without fear of any consequences,” he said.
Pannun has described himself as a Sikh human rights lawyer who is campaigning to turn Punjab into a place where “all religions will have equal rights.”
He said “Duty to Warn” advisories were issued by Canadian law enforcement officials to Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the ex-head of the Canadian chapter of the Khalistan Referendum, in the weeks before he was assassinated on June 18, 2023 in Surrey, British Columbia.
Pannun said the continued threats give him courage and confidence that his campaign and outspokenness is working.
“I’m going to continue, even at the cost of a bullet,” he said.
Washington
Democratic states file new lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s order limiting mail voting in midterms
Democratic-controlled states on Wednesday filed another lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit mail voting in this year’s midterm elections.
The action, filed by about two dozen states against the U.S. Postal Service, marked a new phase in the high-stakes litigation just two days after the Supreme Court ruled against them in a separate case, but did not say Trump’s order was legal.
The high court majority found the Democratic lawsuit was premature, but that was before the Republican administration issued a rule governing U.S. Postal Service delivery of mail ballots. Election officials warn it will be impossible to implement in the days before the first wave of mail ballots are sent out next week.
“Across the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections. Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans’ right to vote,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 25 Democratic attorneys general filing the lawsuit, said in a statement. “USPS has no authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail.”
Trump’s executive order remains barred from taking effect under a separate injunction that the administration argues needs to be immediately rescinded in light of the high court’s ruling in the previous Democratic state lawsuit. It also had succeeded in a third case filed in May in the District of Columbia, convincing a judge that it was too early to prevent its implementation of the executive order.
All previous challenges were filed before the administration published its mail ballot rule Friday night. The rule says that if states want their mail ballots delivered, they will need federal approval of the design of their envelopes and must give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them.
The White House has called the Postal Service plan “commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots” and said the administration would continue to work to implement it to boost “the safety and security of our elections.”
The Postal Service said it would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.
National Democrats on Tuesday cited the rule in asking the federal judge in the Washington case to block Trump’s order after he declined to do so last spring, saying the administration at the time had not taken concrete action. In Boston, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also found that the administration moving forward with the mail ballot rule had violated a separate injunction she had placed on the Postal Service prohibiting it from enacting Trump’s order, although she did not take any action against the government.
Talwani, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, had issued the injunction against Trump’s executive order in the prior Democratic state case, which is the one the Supreme Court overturned on Monday. She has yet to act on the administration’s urging her to revoke her second injunction. It was issued Aug. 11 in a case against the executive order and was filed by the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups while the Supreme Court was considering the administration’s appeal of the judge’s first order.
Trump has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his 2020 election loss and is disproportionately used by Democrats as a result of Trump’s condemnations. Since returning to power, Trump has tried to claim authority over election rules, saying he thinks Republicans should “take over” vote counting in Democratic areas.
He issued his first election executive order just months after retaking office, attempting to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, among other changes. He has also been pushing a sweeping election bill that has stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Democrats and even some within his own party.
