The White House’s We the People petition site requires at least 100,000 signatures for the administration to register an official comment to any issue.

Well, almost any. After a petition to release Jathedar Jagtar Singh Hawara drew 106,320 signatures, the White House was forced to come up with something.

The White House has however declined comment on the case of Jathedar Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the August 1995 assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

On Friday, the site said it would not comment on the idea, citing that White House cannot comment here on the specific foreign criminal justice matter raised in your petition.

“We cannot comment here on the specific foreign criminal justice matter raised in your petition,” the White House said on Friday in its official response.

The petition initiated by New York based “Sikhs For Justice” (SFJ) in November 2015 urging “the President to seek release of Jathedar Hawara from India,” gathered 106,320 signatures.

“The president has made it clear that our nation’s deep respect for religious liberty and pluralism must not stop at our shores,” the White House said.

Saying “Hawara’s act of Beant’s assassination is political in nature,” SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said, it “will continue to pursue this further as the US administration is obligated to intervene in such matters under International Religious Freedom Act of 1998”.

The full response — or non-response — is here.