India has raised the matter with the Rishi Sunak government of the UK that its high commissioner was barred from entering a gurdwara in Scotland by radical British Sikh activists.
Vikram Doraiswami, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, was told by the radical Sikh activists that he was “not welcome”. The incident came amid a massive diplomatic row between India and Canada over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.
The Scotland police were informed when radical Sikh activists stopped Doraiswami from entering the gurdwara. Organisers from the gurdwara tried to ensure the envoy was safe.
India has taken up the issue with the UK Foreign Office.
Giving out details on the incident, a pro-Khalistan activist said that some of them found out that Doraiswami had a meeting planned with the gurdwara committee of the Glasgow gurdwara on Albert Drive.
“I don’t think the gurdwara committee is too happy about what happened. But Indian officials are not welcome in any gurdwara in the UK,” he claimed.
“We are fed up with the UK-India collusion. The recent tensions since Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing have led to British Sikhs being targeted. This is to do with Avtar Singh Khanda and Jagtar Singh Johal too,” he said.
Earlier in June, Avtar Singh Khanda, the UK-based chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and the main handler of Khalistani separatist Amritpal Singh, died in a hospital in Birmingham. He had helped Amritpal Singh evade the police for 37 days in Punjab between March and April this year.
On the other hand, Jagtar Singh Johal has been lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi since 2017 for his alleged involvement with pro-Khalistani terror groups.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was in India for the G20 Summit in Delhi earlier this month, said “no form of violence or extremism” was acceptable in the country.
“Let me just say unequivocally that no form of extremism or violence like that is acceptable in the UK,” Sunak said when asked about the Khalistan issue. He added that the UK is working with the Indian government to tackle PKE (pro-Khalistani extremism).
