Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun says the FBI has warned him of a new threat to his life. Pannun told CBS News on Thursday, October 15, that FBI agents visited his New York City home earlier that day to warn him about what he called an "imminent threat to my life," CBS News reported, in reporting carried by WGHN and WSGW.

According to Pannun, the agents said they were investigating leads and that the threat was connected to his potential travel to Canada to participate in a referendum his organisation, Sikhs for Justice, was scheduled to hold in Edmonton on October 18, asking whether Punjab should be declared independent and renamed "Khalistan." The agents did not provide him further information, he said. He also said he had received warnings from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about threats connected to his residence in Ontario, according to reports citing his statement. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment, CBS News reported, and no US or Canadian agency has publicly detailed the reported threat or attributed it to anyone. Readers should treat the warning itself as Pannun's account, reported by CBS News and other outlets, not as an independently confirmed agency statement.

Pannun said in a statement that the question is not whether he "survives another assassination plot," but whether the right of Sikh people to self-determination "can be stopped through assassination threats." "It cannot," he said.

Pannun, a dual American and Canadian citizen, was the target of a foiled 2023 assassination plot that federal prosecutors in Manhattan say was directed by a former Indian intelligence official. Indian national Nikhil Gupta pleaded guilty in February 2026 to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with that plot, and is set to be sentenced in November, with Pannun expected to speak at the sentencing, according to the reports. Former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav has also been charged in the case. The earlier plot unfolded at the same time as the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another Sikh separatist, who was shot outside his gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

India has designated Pannun a terrorist under its Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and banned Sikhs for Justice in 2019 — India's stated position, reported by LiveMint. Sources: CBS News (via WGHN and WSGW, October 15, 2026); LiveMint; Particle News.