The US Justice Department has charged an Indian intelligence official this week in connection with a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City. The Khalistan movement is pushing for an independent Sikh nation carved out of territory that currently belongs to India and Pakistan.

The US Justice department has charged Vikash Yadav, a former Indian intelligence officer, in the alleged plot.

India’s government is denying that it works with mobsters to target Sikh separatists in Canada as alleged publicly this week by Canadian officials in an escalating diplomatic dispute.