The US has continued to flag "transnational repression" overseas by India despite a change of guard in the White House, amid reports in the western media that the Trump administration had scaled down the annual human rights report brought out by the state department to catalogue human rights violations across the world.

In its country report on human rights practices in India released on Tuesday, the state department has cited Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar's assassination in Canada and the plot to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York in 2023.

CNN, quoting sources, said the report was largely completed before US President Donald Trump began his second term, but it underwent significant revisions in the subsequent months, treating countries whose leaders are allies of the administration more gently than earlier.

"The (Indian) government was alleged by other governments, diaspora communities, and human rights groups to have killed, or used violence or threats of violence, against individuals in other countries for reprisal," the report said about the Nijjar and Pannun cases. While the report notes that India has denied the allegations levelled by the Canadians, including former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it records the status of the Pannun case in the US.

The report also notes that civil society organisations, members of diaspora populations, academics, and journalists advocating, researching, or reporting on human rights have reported experiencing threats, harassment, arbitrary surveillance, visa denials and coercion.

The situation in Manipur is another issue that finds mention in the report among other human rights violations, including extra-judicial killings, censorship, prolonged detention without charges and forced disappearances, essentially listing media reports. The report also states that the government took minimal credible action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses without mentioning any particular case. The external affairs ministry did not comment on the report till the filing of the story.