Sawt Falasteen - US says India has removed alleged agent in assassination plot

The action by New Delhi represented a sharp contrast to its defiant approach to similar charges from Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday accused India of violating his country's sovereignty.

An Indian committee set up to examine the US case visited Washington for talks on Tuesday -- a tension-easing diplomatic process that came just as the row between India and Canada was escalating much more publicly.

"We've received an update from them on the investigation that they have been conducting. It was a productive meeting," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

"They did inform us that the individual who was named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer an employee of the Indian government," he said.

"We are satisfied with the cooperation."

US prosecutors charged an Indian citizen last November over a foiled attempt in New York to kill an advocate for a separate Sikh homeland in India.

The indictment described an "Indian government employee," who was not publicly named, as recruiting the hitman and directing the assassination plot remotely, including by arranging the delivery of $15,000 in cash.

The Hindustan Times, quoting an unnamed US official, said Monday that India not only removed but arrested the employee on "local charges."

The State Department did not confirm the arrest.

The Washington Post, in an extensive article in April, identified the employee as Vikram Yadav, an officer in India's intelligence agency, known as the Research and Intelligence Wing (RAW).

The United States has been courting India as a growing partner, seeing common cause between the world's two largest democracies faced with the rise of China, despite concern voiced by activists about an authoritarian turn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government.

- Canada sees broader Indian campaign -

Canada has separately alleged that India arranged a plot on its soil that ended in the killing last year of a Sikh separatist, who was a naturalized Canadian citizen, outside a Vancouver temple.

Unlike the United States, Canada has highlighted its concerns publicly and at the highest level, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticizing India's actions.

Canada and India on Monday expelled each other's ambassadors as Ottawa said that the Indian campaign went further than previously reported.

At a parliamentary inquiry Wednesday on foreign interference, Trudeau said India had clearly violated Canada's sovereignty and that its intimidation tactics were not limited exclusively to the Sikh community.

Trudeau detailed conduct that he said involved Indian "diplomats collecting information on Canadians who are opponents or in disagreement with the Modi government."

India has rejected Canada's charges and alleged a domestic political motive by Trudeau. Canada has the largest Sikh community outside of India, concentrated in suburban areas critical in national elections.

India on Monday called allegations it was connected to the killing "preposterous" and a "strategy of smearing India for political gains."

Trudeau insisted that Canada has sought to engage India about its concerns. Senior officials of the two countries met recently in Singapore in what Canada has cast as an attempt at more quiet diplomacy.

When Ottawa recently presented its latest allegations to New Delhi, Trudeau said the Indian response was "to double down on attacks against this government."

The United States has walked a fine line on the India-Canada row. Washington has called on India to be more cooperative with Canada, while praising India's own work with Washington.

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST