London: Pro-Khalistan Demonstrators Kept at Bay

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Mar 22: The London Metropolitan Police managed to keep the pro-Khalistan demonstrators at bay as they shouted slogans, threw water bottles and ink at the police on Wednesday for the second time in four days. This time, however, police were present to keep protesters away from the Indian High Commission in London and barricades, too, were put up to secure the building further.

London Metropolitan police kept them confined to the other side of the road, a safe distance from the Indian High Commission. For the protesters, the immediate provocation was the bigger Indian flag draped over the walls of India House. The High Commission employees had retaliated with a bigger flag a day after Sunday’s unprecedented vandalism, when the Indian flag was pulled down and the windows of the building were broken.

Visuals from the site showed demonstrators, many of whom held the yellow flag of the proposed Sikh sovereign state Khalistan, demonstrating against the crackdown launched in India on radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, even as the British capital’s Metropolitan Police kept guard.

The London police had appeared ready for the protesters’ show of strength today, deploying forces in 24 buses as well as the mounted police. While the protest started small, the numbers grew as the evening advanced. By late evening, around 2,000 protesters had turned up at the spot, the police said. The mood got ugly as they tried to break the barricade and targeted the police with water bottles, ink and powdered colours. The police said they would evacuate the spot if the protest escalates any further.

The extra security in London came shortly after the police in New Delhi removed traffic barricades outside the British High Commission, in a move interpreted by some as a demonstration of India’s displeasure with the breach in London on Sunday. The police have explained the move as removal of barricades that were “creating hurdles” for commuters.

Late on Sunday evening, India summoned a senior British diplomat in Delhi to register its strong protest over the “complete absence of British security” as the crowd targeted the building, protesting against the crackdown on Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh and his group. “An explanation was demanded for the complete absence of the British security that allowed these elements to enter the High Commission premises,” the foreign ministry had said.

The ministry also said the UK Government was expected to “take immediate steps to identify, arrest and prosecute each one of those involved in the incident,” and put in place stringent measures to prevent a recurrence. While British officials condemned the vandalism, calling it “disgraceful” and “completely unacceptable”, only one person was arrested by Scotland Yard over the Sunday’s incident. The person is now out on bail.

Invitation for participating in Wednesday’s protest demonstration in front of the Indian High Commission in London was circulated on WhatsApp. The Federation of Sikh Groups, which had signed some of the invitations, was unavailable for comment.

A bigger national flag than the previous ones has been unfurled on the Indian High Commission’s building in London amid protest by Khalistani supporters. The embassy on Monday, in an epic response to protesters, had unfurled a slightly smaller flag on the building after Khalistani supporters pulled down the Indian flag outside the building.

On Wednesday as over 2,000 Khalistani supporters turned up again in front of the building, some of them throwing ink, water bottles and powdered colours at the police, the Indian embassy draped the side of the building with the national flag. Visuals show about a dozen embassy staff on the terrace holding a long tricolour as in a human chain.

On March 19, a pro-Khalistan activist, who was part of a group protesting the crackdown against Amritpal, a Khalistan propagator, had managed to climb on to a balcony of the Indian mission – the building was unguarded – and brought down the Indian Tricolour erected there. The incident, as well as the UK’s seeming indifference towards securing the mission, triggered massive outrage in India with New Delhi taking it up with the counterparts in London.