Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an advocate for Sikh separatism who survived a reported 2023 plot to kill him — a plot U.S. authorities have linked to a former Indian intelligence official — disclosed on Thursday that the FBI is now looking into additional threats against his life.

Pannun, who has publicly opposed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, told reporters that FBI agents came to his New York City residence earlier that day to relay what he described as an imminent threat against his life. His organisation, Sikhs for Justice, has scheduled a non-binding referendum for Oct. 18 in Edmonton, Canada, where Sikh community members are being asked to cast ballots on whether the northern Indian region of Punjab should become an independent state under the name Khalistan.

In a written statement, Pannun framed the central question not as his personal survival in the face of any further plots against his life, but as whether threats of that nature hold any power to suppress the Sikh people's pursuit of self-determination — a pursuit he maintained no such threat can halt.

Pannun was told by agents that the matter remains under active investigation, with the threat linked to a possible trip to Canada for the referendum, though no additional details were shared with him. No comment from the FBI had been provided by the time of publication.

Charges filed by federal prosecutors based in Manhattan named Nikhil Gupta, a national of India, alongside Vikash Yadav, a former officer within Indian intelligence, as the two individuals alleged to have conspired in a plot targeting Pannun, who holds citizenship in both the United States and Canada. Having entered a guilty plea in February on charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, Gupta faces a November sentencing date at which Pannun has indicated he will deliver remarks.

Pannun's alleged plot unfolded across roughly the same window of time as the June 2023 death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar — a figure described as both a Sikh separatist leader and a close associate of Pannun — who was shot and killed outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia. That same month in 2023, authorities in Canada announced they had gathered intelligence pointing to the involvement of operatives working for the Indian government in the man's death, an act they characterised as a breach of the country's territorial integrity.

On both the killing of Nijjar and the attempt on Pannun's life, those responsible for the acts have not been acknowledged by India as connected to its government. The group has been officially categorised as a terrorist organisation, with authorities asserting that its activities pose a threat to national security.

Law enforcement bodies in both the United States and Canada have issued similar advisories to Pannun on multiple occasions throughout the year. Outreach from both the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reached Pannun during August and September, he noted, each agency alerting him to additional threats unrelated to one another.

He noted that the alerts from law enforcement followed shortly after federal prosecutors based in Los Angeles unveiled criminal charges in July against the head of the organised crime network referred to as "Bishnoi" — an India-rooted group — along with eight of his associates, linking all nine to the 2023 killing of Nijjar. Law enforcement authorities in India took Bishnoi into custody during 2015. According to the indictment, he directed the operations of a transnational criminal organisation throughout his period of incarceration.

Satinderjit Singh Brar, described in court documents as a childhood friend of Bishnoi, faces charges in the indictment that include overseeing the network's North American activities and giving the order for the killing.