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08-12-2023
LONDON: The Sikh Federation UK has called upon Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to come clean on the serious risks posed by the Indian state agents to Sikh activists in the country
The calls grew amid a judge-led inquiry into the mysterious death of pro-Khalistan activist Avtar Singh Khanda on the back of planned and actual assassinations of Sikh activists in Canada and the United States.
Sikhs have been asking questions to Rishi Sunak after the sudden and mysterious death of 35-year-old Avtar Singh Khanda on June 15 this year in Birmingham, three days before the assassination of Canadian Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.
The Guardian this week published an investigation questioning the role of local police and revealing that the Indian state had kidnapped the sister and mother of Khanda in India days and hours before his sudden death and threatened him on the phone.
Sikh Federation said: “It is now clear the West Midlands Police, who are in special measures, did not carry out a proper investigation by looking into death threats Avtar Singh Khanda was receiving from serving Indian police officers and neglected to conduct any interviews or trace his movements leading up to his death. Avtar Singh Khanda released a video in April, exactly two months before he died giving details of pressure being exerted on him and threats and harassment of his family in India by Indian police over a four-day period. He specifically mentioned the direct threats and harassment of numerous members of his family by Rupinder Kaur Bhattti, the additional deputy commissioner of police in Ludhiana who was telephoning him in the UK. GCHQ will have a record of such calls and threats and must have informed British intelligence.
“The bungled and incomplete investigation by the West Midlands Police indicates they had no basis to conclude there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Avtar Singh Khanda. The backtracking by the West Midlands Police and recent revelations from the US and Canada raise serious questions about the senior coroner’s decision not to order an autopsy into the mysterious death of Avtar Singh Khanda. The senior coroner should not simply have relied on the sub-standard West Midlands Police investigation,” it added.
“The incompetence of West Midlands Police is also highly embarrassing for Home Office and FCDO Ministers. In recent responses to over 100 MPs who have written to raise concerns on behalf of Sikh constituents about the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the mysterious death of Avtar Singh Khanda, they have categorically stated reliance on the ‘thorough’ investigation by the West Midlands Police.
“The situation demands an inquest into Avtar Singh Khanda’s mysterious death that will almost certainly need to become a judge-led inquiry into his death. Only a judge-led inquiry will be able to get to examine the failings of the police, coroner and British intelligence, especially on the back of planned and actual assassinations of Sikh activists in Canada and the US,” said the federation. (Int’l News Desk)
