The statement comes after protests in recent weeks outside the Indian embassy in the UK: protesters had removed the Indian flag and put up a banner reading “Khalistan”, referring to the state that would unite the entire Punjab region. Meanwhile, California introduced a resolution to recognize violence against Sikhs in the 1980s as genocide.
New Delhi () – In a meeting held in New Delhi with officials from the British Home Office, the Indian authorities expressed their concern about the “abuse of the political asylum statute by the United Kingdom against pro-Jalist elements to aid and abet terrorist activities in India”, and called for “increased cooperation” from London.
The remarks came after groups of Sikh supporters last month removed the Indian flag from the country’s embassy in London and raised a banner reading “Khalistan”, referring to an independent state that does not exist but which would unite Indian and Pakistani Punjab. The demonstrators were protesting against police measures to capture Amritpal Singh, leader of the separatist movement.
Similar protests have also taken place in the United States and Canada, where a significant minority Sikhs live, in recent months.
At the end of March, the California Assembly passed a resolution urging the US Congress to condemn and recognize as genocide the violence perpetrated against the Sikhs in 1984, when, in an attempt to put an end to the secessionist movement, thousands of people were killed. in clashes with police at Amritsar’s Golden Temple, one of Sikhism’s holiest sites. That same year, after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by a separatist, thousands more died in acts of street violence.
According to the resolution – introduced by Jasmeet Kaur Bains, the first Sikh member of the California Assembly – the Delhi “widows’ colony” continues to house Sikh women who are assaulted, raped, tortured and forced to witness the dismemberment and murder of their families. The only other Hindu member of the assembly, Ash Kalra, voted in favor of the document.
