A group of people trespassed the Indian Consulate in Seattle after which the authorities were compelled to take action against the intruders, the consulate said on Friday (Feb 7).

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The consulate posted on X that the intruders refused to leave the premises even after repeated requests and engaged in aggressive and threatening behaviour with their staff members.

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

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The consulate also stated that they had to seek assistance from local authorities and would pursue action against the trespassers.

“We were compelled to call in relevant local authorities to deal with the situation. Further action is being initiated against the trespassers,” the post added.

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News agency PTI referred to one of the intruders as Kshama Sawant.

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Who is Kshama Sawant?

A video available on social media showed Sawant, whose bio on X says she was a Seattle City Council Member from 2014 to 2023 along with another person, claiming 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.

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“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.

Attack on Indian Consulate in 2023

Recently, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke on the 2023 attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco and termed it a “very serious matter".

While speaking to the press in Washington DC on Jan 23, Jaishankar said India expects accountability for the incident.

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

(With inputs from agencies)