AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Authorities in California are investigating a shooting earlier this month outside Sacramento that involved a Sikh separatist. This comes after two recent assassination plots targeting Sikh leaders in the U.S. and in Canada. The separatists are pushing for an independent Sikh state carved out from Northern India. And that is raising questions about whether the latest shooting is also politically motivated. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is here to explain more. Hi, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
CHANG: All right, so there's a lot to get into here. I just want to start with the shooting. What do we know as of now?
LUCAS: Well, it happened on August 11 on Interstate 505. It's a stretch of freeway west of Sacramento that runs through farm fields, basically. The Sikh separatist you mentioned at the top is Satinder Pal Singh Raju. He told me that he was heading south on the freeway with two friends a little before midnight on August 11. Raju was in the passenger seat. And he said, he and his friends noticed a white sedan coming up very fast behind them, says the car didn't have any tags, no license plates. And then it pulled up alongside their pickup truck, and then someone in the car opened fire on them. Here's Raju.
SATINDER PAL SINGH RAJU: (Non-English language spoken).
LUCAS: He says he was nervous and didn't know what happened when the shot came out. There was another shot, and then, he says, our vehicle skidded off the freeway to the side of the road. Now, he tells me the white car didn't stop. It drove off. But the gunshots blasted holes in the driver's side window. Miraculously, nobody in the truck was hit. But Raju and his friends called 911. The California Highway Patrol says it is investigating the shooting. And the FBI in Sacramento tells me it's assisting with that investigation.
CHANG: OK. So what do we know about what they've uncovered so far?
LUCAS: Well, investigators recovered bullet casings from the scene, but the CHP says they don't have any suspects identified at this point. For his part, though, Raju says, he does not think that this was some random act of violence. He believes that this was a targeted attack against him for his activist work pushing for an independent Sikh state, something, of course, that the Indian government very much opposes.
And two men that Raju has worked closely with have been the targets of assassination plots. One of them is a U.S. citizen named Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The Justice Department says it filed a plot to assassinate him last year in New York City. And then the other was a Canadian Sikh separatist who was - in fact, was assassinated last year. His name was Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada's prime minister has accused Indian government agents of orchestrating his killing. Four Indian nationals have been arrested and charged in Canada over that. And now we have the shooting in California. Here's Raju again.
RAJU: (Non-English language spoken).
LUCAS: He says, "I have no personal enmity with anyone whatsoever, so this has to be the Indian government which assassinated Nijjar and who attempted to attack Pannun," he says.
CHANG: Well, what has the Indian government said so far?
LUCAS: Well, I reached out to the Indian embassy here in Washington for comment. They have not responded so far. But the Indian government has previously denied involvement in Nijjar's assassination. The government has set up its own inquiry into the Pannun case under U.S. pressure. And I will also add that the Indian government has branded both of those men terrorists for their separatist work.
Now, Pannun, for his part, denies those allegations. He is, of course, a strong critic of the Indian government, but he says that he advocates nonviolent, Democratic means to create an independent Sikh state. And again, at this point, there is no evidence that this was indeed - the shooting in California - an assassination attempt. But the circumstances and the history are certainly fueling questions.
CHANG: Definitely. Well, Ryan, just setting this case aside for the moment - you've reported on cases where foreign governments are actually trying to harass or kill dissidents here on U.S. soil. I'm just wondering, how large of a problem is this?
LUCAS: Right. The Justice Department refers to this as transnational repression, and it is a big growing problem. The head of the Department's National Security Division has told me that this is a top priority for him right now. Federal prosecutors have brought many cases in recent years involving foreign actors harassing dissidents or intimidating them here in the United States. But there have also been assassination plots here on U.S. soil. The Justice Department says that it has foiled at least four in just the past few years, including the one that I was talking about, the one that has been linked to India.
CHANG: Yeah. That is NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thank you so much, Ryan.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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