‘Aggressive’ individuals barge into Indian Consulate in Seattle, authorities step in

The Indian Consulate in Seattle on Friday said it was compelled to call local authorities after certain individuals, who had entered its premises without authorisation, refused to leave and engaged in “aggressive” and “threatening” behaviour. 

In a post on X, the official handle of the Consulate General of India, Seattle wrote, “Today, the Consulate was forced to deal with a law and order situation arising from the unauthorized entry by certain individuals into the Consulate premises after office hours.” 

The post read, “Despite repeated requests, these individuals refused to leave the Consulate premises and engaged in aggressive and threatening behaviour with the Consulate staff.”

"We were compelled to call in relevant local authorities to deal with the situation. Further action is being initiated against the trespassers," the Indian Consulate in Seattle wrote.

One of the individuals the consulate referred to was Kshama Sawant, whose bio on X says she was a Seattle City Council Member from 2014 to 2023, reported PTI.

A video from the incident has emerged on social media. In it, Sawant, along with another person, claimed that she was denied a visa to go to India because she was on the ‘reject list.’

In a post on X, Sawant said she was on the ‘reject list’ as her Socialist City Council office passed a resolution against the CAA-NRC Citizenship Act.

“A Consular officer said I'm being denied a visa coz I'm on Modi govt's ‘reject list.’ It's clear why. My socialist City Council office passed a resolution condemning Modi's anti-Muslim anti-poor CAA-NRC citizenship law. We also won a historic ban on caste discrimination [sic]," Sawant wrote.

2023 attack on Indian Consulate

Recently, while speaking to the media in Washington DC, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco in 2023 and called it a “very serious matter."

He said India wants accountability for the incident and those responsible to be held accountable. 

On March 19, 2023, the Indian Consulate in San Francisco was attacked, and attempts were made to set the Consulate building on fire.