THE
TIMES OF INDIA HINDUTVA MEDIA SPEW VENOM AGAINST DAL KHALSA UK IN THEIR
HEADLINES, DUE TO OUR STATEMENT ASKING SIKHS TO REMAIN UNITED.... IS
THIS RADICAL? OR A CRIME?
LONDON: Two men barely out of infancy when Operation Bluestar took place in 1984 were produced in court on Monday as prime suspects after the Scotland Yard linked them to the attack on Lt-Gen Kuldeep Singh Brar, who'd led the Army action against Sikh militants in the Golden Temple.
The police charged Barjinder Singh Sangha, 33, of Wolverhampton, and Mandeep Singh Sandhu, 34, of Birmingham, with "wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm" on the retired Lt-General. Sangha was also charged with "common assault" on Brar's wife Meena.
"Grievous bodily harm" is a less serious charge than "attempted murder", which is what the accused were being investigated for. It appears the crown prosecution service decided the former would stand a better chance of securing conviction than the other. Brar has claimed it was an attempt to assassinate him.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard disclosed a 27-year-old man was arrested at a residential address in west London on Sunday night in connection with the case. He was being questioned at a south London police station.
Altogether, 12 men and women were detained last week on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, following which 10 were released on bail over the weekend. A spokesman for Scotland Yard clarified that they remain "suspects" and can be summoned any time.
Dal Khalsa UK, an anti-India organisation in Britain since the early 1980s, exhorted Sikhs: "Never forget 1984." On Sunday it claimed the assault on Brar was staged by him and India's external espionage agency, Research & Analysis Wing (RAW). After Sangha and Sandhu were charged, it appealed "to UK Sikh nation to remain calm and united at this critical time".
It complained of ill-treatment of those granted conditional bail by London police. "Sikhs on bail were treated unfairly, released without belongings, had to walk home without money in the rain," it lamented. A number of gurdwaras in west London and the West Midlands are now on British police and intelligence watch list. In fact, rather unusually, the Yard deployed its counter terrorism command to carry out some of the arrests.
While Babbar Khalsa and International Sikh Youth Federation are among 48 terrorist bodies proscribed by the British government, Dal Khalsa is not included in this list. The UK's home office failed to respond when asked what its position was on the latter.
British law enforcement agencies have also focussed on two UK satellite TV services allegedly spewing venom against India, Sikh Channel and Sangat TV, following dissatisfaction expressed about their content by the Indian high commission.