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  • March 22, 2023

UK ensures safety of Indian mission in London after New Delhi removes barricade at British High Commission

worldnrinews January 9, 2018

NEW DELHI/LONDON March 21: Days after pro-Khalistan activists took down the tricolor at the Indian high commission in UK, the Delhi Police on Wednesday removed extra barricades outside the British mission in New Delhi.

The police said that the barricades “were creating hurdles” for commuters but the security of the British high commission is intact.

“The security arrangements outside the British High Commission here are intact. However, barricades placed on the pathway towards the commission that created hurdles for commuters have been removed,” a senior police officer told PTI.

The move comes just days after India expressed strong displeasure over the lack of security at its high commission in UK which led to the tricolor incident.

When contacted, a spokesperson for the British High Commission said, “We do not comment on security matters.”

On Sunday, India had summoned the British deputy high commissioner and demanded an explanation over the complete “absence of security” after videos of pulling down of the Indian flag by pro-Khalistan elements emerged on social media.

The protest by separatists happened in retaliation to the police crackdown on ‘Waris Punjab De’ leader Amritpal Singh and his associates.

Top British officials have said the UK government will take the security of the Indian High Commission “seriously”, as they condemned as “disgraceful” and “completely unacceptable” the vandalism at the Indian mission by a group of protesters waving separatist Khalistani flags.

India’s formal protest was followed by large anti-UK protests held by several people outside the British High Commission in the Chanakyapuri area of Delhi on Monday.

Several Sikh supporters surrounded the commission to express anger over the incident of vandalism at the Indian mission in the UK and asked the British government to take strict measures against those involved.

Security heightened around Indian mission in London

Meanwhile, there is a heightened security presence and barricades have been erected outside the Indian high commission on Wednesday due to a planned demonstration called by some British Sikh groups.

Banners for a so-called “National Protest”, organised by groups such as the Federation of Sikh Organisations (FSO) and Sikh Youth Jathebandia, have been circulating on social media since before the protest on Sunday.

Since the weekend, several uniformed officers have been patrolling the area in Aldwych and Metropolitan Police vans have been stationed at India Place.

Wednesday’s planned demonstration claims to be “in response to discriminatory actions of the Indian Police in Punjab”.

In London pro-Khalistan protesters shouted slogans, threw water bottles and ink at the London Metropolitan police today (Wednesday), who 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.

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 will 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. 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 that the UK Government is 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 incident. The person is now out on bail.

The attacks in the UK came after Indian police launched a massive crackdown on Khalistan movement members. Pubjab police launched a massive operation to arrest fugitive Amritpal Singh, a self-styled preacher and leader of a radical organisation “Waris Punjab De”, or Heirs of Punjab.

Mr Singh has been on run since Saturday after he was accused of creating discord in India’s Punjab state, which has a long history of violent armed insurgency in the 1980s for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

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