A group of Khalistan radicals on July 2 set Indian Consulate on fire in San Francisco. The fire was suppressed quickly by the San Francisco Fire Department.
The incident did not cause any damage inside the diplomatic premises In what they claimed was an attempt to avenge the killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist, The State Department termed it a criminal offense
In March, Khalistani activists had planted flags at the consulate, broken through the barricades, used flagpoles to attack the consulate, smashed windows and hit the doors. People familiar with the incident said that around 1:30am, two men, dressed in dark overalls which made them hard to recognise, came to the front gate of the consulate.
They painted pro-Khalistani graffiti on the walls and then used what appeared to be fuel cans to spray inflammable liquid inside the diplomatic premises. They set it within minutes, fled the scene.
Within 6 minutes of the incident, fire engines were on the spot and worked on the fire immediately.
The entire incident lasted for less than ten minutes and there was no damage done either to the infrastructure of the consulate or harm caused to the support staff.
By 2:30am, local police authorities had arrived at the consulate to make preliminary enquiries.
What helped was that after the attack by Khalistanis in March, India had erected grills and railings to beef up the security at the consulate.
India has been cooperating with the investigation, sharing CCTV footage and details of active Khalistani groups and clues about the possible perpetrators.
Condemning the incident, Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson, tweeted, “The U.S. strongly condemns the reported vandalism and attempted arson against the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Saturday. Vandalism or violence against diplomatic facilities or foreign diplomats in the U.S. is a criminal offense.”
India is clear that it wants to see action, not just sympathy, arrests of those involved in recent incidents, and preemptive measures by the US authorities to stop any such future attacks.
Given the Khalistani attack on the SF consulate in March, the harassment and attack against an Indian journalist in front of the Indian embassy in Washington DC, and now the attempted burning of the consulate, there is a clear pattern of criminal intent and action of Khalistani groups that has been established, people familiar with the developments indicated.
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