Truth before trade 

By Claudia Webbe MP 

The Britain-India trade deal must stop until the truth is known about the anti-Sikh murder campaign, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE MP

ON JUNE 18 last year, a white car matched the movement of a pick-up truck driven by Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian national and Sikh activist, as it crossed the car park of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

As Nijjar’s truck reached the car park exit the white car cut him off, preventing him from driving out and forcing him to stop. As his vehicle came to a halt, two men on foot approached the driver’s window and shot him, firing around 50 bullets before running off and getting into the white car before it sped away. Nijjar died of his wounds.

We know this because the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has just released CCTV footage showing the complex and highly organised manoeuvres involved in his assassination. At least six men and two vehicles took part.

The murder sparked a diplomatic row between Canada and India. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of involvement in the murder, saying that his nation’s security services were investigating “credible allegations” of Indian state involvement and calling on India to co-operate in Canada’s investigation. Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be held accountable.

The Canadian government reportedly obtained a list of around 20 names, plus that of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, of so called “Khalistan activists” that were also likely targets. Some of those named live in Britain.

The day after Nijjar’s murder, according to the US government’s November 2023 indictment against Nikhil Gupta, Gupta tried to procure the assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a leading US-based Sikh advocate for the secession of Punjab from India to create a Sikh sovereign state of Khalistan in Punjab.

The undercover agent that he thought was a hit-man reported that Gupta told him that Pannun’s killing was part of a broad campaign of planned assassinations and that Nijjar’s murder was part of the campaign. Gupta has claimed that he was acting on the instructions of an Indian intelligence officer known as “CC1.”

In response to Nijjar’s murder and the allegations surrounding it, so far the British government has stated that the events would have “no impact” on Britain’s ongoing trade talks with the Modi government.

Around the same time as the murder of Nijjar and the plot against Pannun, Birmingham Sikh activist Avtar Singh Kanda complained that Indian police were verbally harassing him by phone and threatening his family in Punjab. He died suddenly. The British authorities have said that he died of sudden acute myeloid leukaemia, but his family believe his death to be suspicious.

The British government is still pursuing what it claims is a “really huge” trade deal with India, yet is failing to use the opportunity — one of the few concrete chances it has — to apply pressure to the Indian government on its human rights record generally or the issue of the assassination campaign in particular. India wants more visas for Indian workers and an agreement on social security payments — these could be used as leverage if the government was interested in doing so.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi denied any involvement of the Indian government in the murders and assassination attempts and said he would “look into” the alleged involvement of an Indian intelligence operative.

Two months after Nijjar’s murder, Canadian police arrived at the home of Gurmeet Singh Toor, a friend of Nijjar and a fellow proponent of a separate homeland for Sikhs and handed him a “duty to warn” notice informing him that his life was also in danger. Toor asked them who was threatening his life. He said that “they said they couldn’t explain the threats for ‘security reasons.’ But they told me they had information that I was in danger.”

At the same time that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was releasing the CCTV footage of the “complex and highly organised” murder of Nijjar, the UK Sikh Federation published a post on its Twitter/X feed alleging that “evidence suggests” that Modi had “personally sanctioned” the assassination campaign.

The federation’s post stated: “We believe the US has sufficient evidence to show the Indian PM, Narendra Modi on the advice of his National Security Adviser… personally sanctioned the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief… to carry out the assassination of Sikh activists in the West campaigning for a Sikh homeland. The US, the other Five Eyes nations [which include the UK] and allies in Europe know they have a massive dilemma with those directing the assassinations from Delhi.”

At the time of writing, Modi does not appear to have responded specifically to the Sikh Federation’s allegations.

The notion of Khalistan is the backdrop to these allegations. Both Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had been condemned as “terrorists” by the Modi government for their activism for the creation of a Sikh sovereign state, activism that has been made illegal in India and brutally repressed.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both condemned the “impunity” afforded to security services for alleged mass killings of independence activists and torture and detention without trial of others. Support for Khalistan independence has grown among Sikh diaspora communities, including in my constituency of Leicester East, in an apparent response to this military repression. It is my view that those that peacefully support Khalistan and a referendum on independence are not terrorists, and should not be labelled as such, let alone killed.

A further factor in India’s reaction to the Khalistan separatist movement is the ongoing strike and protests by mostly Sikh farmers in Punjab. The strike is a renewal of the highly effective 2021 farmers’ strike, which forced the Indian government into a major climbdown over planned measures the farmers said would impoverish them.

Despite the Indian constitution’s guarantees of freedom of assembly and the right to protest, attempts by demonstrators to reach the Indian capital New Delhi with their farm tractor protests have been met by police and military using drones, tear gas, rubber bullets and, increasingly, metal pellets fired at protesters, blinding several. Pro-government Indian media have accused pro-Khalistan leaders — including Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — of inciting the farmers and stirring unrest for political ends, in what appears to be an attempt to smear both the farmers and the Sikh independence movement by association with each other.

The new video evidence published by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the allegations of the Sikh Federation in Britain raise serious questions about the actions of the Indian government, in other sovereign states, against Sikh activists.

The British government must come clean about what it knows about India’s involvement in the deaths and attempted murder of Sikh activists, whether in Britain or elsewhere — and if it knows nothing, it must demand answers of the Indian government and the trade deal must be put on hold until they are received.

Britain must not stand by if there is any chance that India is targeting Sikhs for assassination. Trade talks cannot be prioritised above justice and the safety of Sikh diaspora communities.

Claudia Webbe MP is the member of Parliament for Leicester East. You can follow her at www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE and twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe