BEIJING, Feb 19 (APP):Nikhil Gupta’s guilty plea in a US federal court has laid bare India’s blatant act of transnational state-sponsored terrorism, and its utter disregard for international law, national sovereignty and global security.
The 54-year-old Indian national confessed to plotting the murder of American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun under the direction of an Indian government employee—a crime that joins a string of similar nefarious acts orchestrated by New Delhi.
This case is by no means an isolated incident. Months before Gupta’s arrest, Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down in Canada, with credible allegations linking the killing to agents of the Indian government.
India dismissed the accusation as absurd, yet Gupta’s guilty plea has corroborated Canada’s claims, exposing a disturbing pattern: India’s use of assassination to silence dissent across international borders.
These views were expressed by Prof Cheng Xizhong, Senior Research Fellow at the Charhar Institute, a non-governmental Chinese think-tank on diplomacy and international studies based in Beijing.
He said that, worse still, India’s rogue behavior extends far beyond targeted killings. It has secretly funded and armed terrorist groups in neighboring regions such as Pakistan’s Balochistan, inciting separatist violence and eroding regional stability. While posturing as a champion of anti-terrorism, India has itself become a perpetrator of terrorism, exploiting state power to carry out brazen transnational crimes.
Such acts constitute not only a direct assault on the sovereignty of the United States, Canada and Pakistan but also a grave threat to the global and regional security order. They trample on the fundamental principles of international law and set a dangerous precedent for state-sponsored violence, he added.
Prof Cheng opined that as a country that purports to be a responsible global actor, India must abandon its hegemonic and terrorist tactics, hold accountable those behind these heinous plots, and respect the sovereignty and laws of other nations. The international community, for its part, should remain vigilant, urge India to mend its ways, and collectively safeguard global and regional security and stability.