KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed its first charge sheet in the twin violent attacks at the Indian high commission in London last year, naming a British Indian national in the conspiracy, an agency spokesperson said.
Inderpal Singh Gaba, a resident of Hounslow, UK, was arrested on April 25 this year, nearly five months after the immigration authorities at the Attari border in Amritsar detained him on arrival from London via Pakistan.
On March 22 last year, around 2,000 pro-Khalistan supporters vandalised the Indian high commission building in Britain’s capital city and threw articles, including ink, to deface it. Three days before the incident, a smaller group pulled down the Indian flag at the high commission in an attack that also led to injuries to some embassy staff, much to the displeasure of New Delhi.
The protestors were organised by Britain-based Sikh radical Avtar Singh Khanda, who died in a UK hospital in June 2023. Khanda was a close associate of Khalistani terrorist Jagtar Singh Tara, and allegedly acted in retaliation to the action taken by the Punjab Police against Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh on March 18 last year.
Amritpal Singh, now a parliamentarian from Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab, has been booked under the National Security Act and is lodged in a high-security jail at Dibrugarh in Assam since April last year.
“Inderpal Singh Gaba, a UK national residing in Hounslow and originally hailing from New Delhi, India, has been charge sheeted as one of the agitators who had participated actively in the anti-India protest which took place on March 22 last year in front of Indian high commission, London, as part of the Khalistani secessionist agenda,” an NIA spokesperson said on Thursday.
Gaba was arrested “after exhaustive investigations that established his role in the secessionist activity,” the spokesperson said. “His mobile phone was seized and scrutinised, which revealed several incriminating videos/photos of the incident, and eventually established his involvement in the incident.”
The federal anti-terror agency said the probe has so far has revealed that the attacks in London were conspired and perpetrated in retaliation to the Punjab Police’s crackdown on Amritpal Singh and his outfit.
“The attack on the high commission was aimed at furthering and achieving the cause of Khalistan by secession of the state of Punjab from India,” NIA said.
Soon after the attacks, an NIA team travelled to London in May 2023 to gather evidence with the help of Metropolitan Police. After the visit, the agency had released a CCTV footage of the March 19 attack and identified at least 45 suspects from the mob.