BBC News – MPs to meet security minister over safety of Sikhs living in Britain

Vanessa Pearce

BBC News, West Midlands, 30 January 2024. A cross-party group of MPs is set to meet with the government’s security minister over the safety of Sikh activists living in Britain.

Labour MP Preet Kaur Gill said concerns were raised after an “intelligence hit list” appeared on a number of Indian media channels.

“It talked about 20 Sikhs who don’t live in India referring to them as enemies of the state” she said.

Six British Sikhs were named, with some now under police protection she said.

A meeting is set to take place on Tuesday.

Some Sikh activists have been contacted by police to tell them their lives were in danger, she explained.

The letters – also known as Osman warnings – are issued if officers become aware of a real and immediate threat to somebody’s life.

“They have said they’ve had threats, they’ve had harassment and intimidation,” said the MP for Birmingham Edgbaston.

“Those are the levels of concerns we are seeing about transnational repression and seeing different states trying to further their ideologies here in the United Kingdom by suppressing peoples’ voices and their right to speak up on human rights violations,” she said.

Sikh activists have been on high alert since evidence emerged from Canada suggesting the Indian government had a role to play in the assassination of Canadian Sikh Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was campaigning for a breakaway Sikh homeland, or Khalistan.

In November US prosecutors also charged an Indian man with a plot to kill at least four Sikh separatists in North America.

Avtar Singh Khanda, 35, who was well-known for his support of the creation of Khalistan, died in Birmingham last year, with some close to him suggesting there was foul play involved.

West Midlands Police said it thoroughly reviewed the case and there were no suspicious circumstances and no need to re-investigate.

“What we really want from the securities minister is a reassurance from the government that firstly it’s taking the appropriate steps to support and protect the British Sikh community from any unlawful threats or attacks,” Ms Gill said.

“These are British nationals and we’ve got to make sure the government is taking this very seriously,” the MP added.

“But also they’ve got to really listen and hear accounts from these individuals as to what it is that they’ve experienced and so that we can absolutely raise these concerns appropriately with the Indian counterparts.”

The Indian embassy in London said it had no comment to make and the UK government said it takes the protection of individuals’ rights, freedom and safety seriously.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-68121754

FirstPost – How Lutyens’ Delhi derailed Nitish Kumar’s political career – and with it the prospect of Bihar….

Utpal Kumar

Amartya Sen and N.K. Singh enflamed a prime ministerial ambition in Nitish Kumar to make him commit a political hara-kiri, forcing him to leave the NDA fold in 2013. Since then, his politics has been all about U-turns

New Delhi – India, 27 January 2024. In 1991, American economist Robert Reich wrote an article highlighting the growing social divide in the US. He called it the “secession of the successful”.

A year later, he expanded the idea into a book, The Work of Nations, wherein he wrote how the “new elite is linked by jet, modem, fax, satellite and fibre-optic cable to the great commercial and recreational centres of the world, but it is not particularly connected to the rest of the nation”.

These ‘successful’ ones tend to ‘secede’ from society as they get richer and more successful.

They tend to retreat into a reclusive, private world.

Former diplomat and writer Pavan K. Varma highlights this “aggressive, selfish, insular” lifestyle of the Indian elite in his book, The Great Indian Middle Class, where he points out how they live in their bungalows surrounded by high walls, with secured water from personal borewells and electricity from diesel-powered gensets.

When they need to socialise, they go to private clubs, use private transport, and have for all practical purposes cut themselves off from the larger Indian realities.

They have not just seceded from their surroundings but are also eager to migrate abroad. The most popular alternative homes of Indian business families outside India can be found in the UK, Singapore, Dubai, and Switzerland.

The traditional Lutyens’ elites owe their existence and sustenance largely to the Nehru–Gandhi family that has been in power, directly or indirectly, till 2014.

In fact, as author-journalist Sanjaya Baru writes in India’s Power Elite: Class, Caste and a Cultural Revolution, “(N)o one represented this elite better than the country’s first political family, the Nehru–Gandhis, and the many families cutting across professions that benefited from serving the family’s successive generations.”

Baru continues, “he Nehru–Gandhi family, on to Indira and Rajiv, and then Rajiv’s widow Sonia and her children, the Nehru-Gandhi family symbolised this continuity in pre-Independence and post-Independence power elite.

Nehru, with his Allahabad Brahmin origins and upbringing, British education and his circle of friends from the British upper class – including the last British Viceroy and his family – was the quintessential representative of the pre-Independence upper class.”

Till 2014, this power elite-disdainfully called Lutyens’ Club or Khan Market Gang by those on the other side of the ideological divide-retained power and pelf irrespective of which party was running the country.

Even when Atal Bihari Vajpayee formed the first BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre in the late 1990s, the Lutyens’ elite still called the shots.

Baru writes, “Vajpayee … was himself a long-standing member of the Lutyens’ elite and indeed belonged to what Modi and his groupies would dub the ‘Khan Market Gang’, so to speak. For, my own first glimpse of Vajpayee in the early 1980s was in, of all places, Khan Market.

He was carrying a Pomeranian in his arms and walking into a veterinarian’s, simply smiled and walked on, as if he was running an errand in a familiar neighbourhood.”

He continues, “The ease with which senior BJP leaders, including Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley and Brajesh Mishra, interacted with a range of the (India International Centre’s) IIC’s usual suspects and then went on to become powerful members of the Vajpayee government further reassured Lutyens’ Delhi.

Lal Krishna Advani and wife were frequent diners at the IIC dining room, and Arun Jaitley loved his walks around the Lodhi Garden and the long chat sessions with friends over tea and snacks at the IIC lounge. Jaswant Singh was a regular in the IIC’s seminar circuit.

Even after Vajpayee became [prime minister], one could find many [Prime Minister’s Office] PMO officials at the watering holes of the Gymkhana Club and the IIC.”

Nothing had changed for India’s traditional power elite. If anything, the Vajpayee regime had only reinforced a sense of invincibility in this class: That the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Nothing had changed for India’s traditional power elite. If anything, the Vajpayee regime had only reinforced a sense of invincibility in this class: That the more things change, the more they remain the same…

But it’s not that Lutyens’ Delhi got everything on a platter. It took a lot of planning and plotting and intense negotiations and lobbying sessions to get the ‘right person’ for the job.

N.K. Singh is a classic example. The son of an ICS officer, NK or Nandu as he would fondly be called by his close friends, worked closely with different Congress regimes, but it was under Vajpayee that he arrived with a flourish. Baru writes,

“When Vajpayee was defeated and Manmohan Singh took over, there was a shake-up in the bureaucracy and many Vajpayee loyalists were moved out of important positions, but the Lutyens’ elite very quickly adjusted itself to the new dispensation, with ‘our friend Nandu’ (as N.K. Singh was called by his friends) replaced by a ‘our friend Montek’.”(Montek Singh Ahluwalia).

But the NK story doesn’t end there. In 2013, it was he who, in order to stop the Modi juggernaut in the following year’s Lok Sabha elections, pulled up the Nitish Kumar card. In his book, Single Man:

The Life and Times of Nitish Kumar of Bihar, senior journalist Sankarshan Thakur recalls how “three nights before” Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP for the first time in 2013, N.K. Singh, by then a Janata Dal (United) (JDU) MP, was hosting a dinner at Cambridge.

As the party was in full swing, NK asked Amartya Sen: “What, Sir, do you think are the options before Nitish Kumar?” The Nobel laureate “reflected a moment’ and then said, ‘Well, Nitish Kumar has several options, but only one honourable one”.

That one message – the honourable one, of course- changed the mind of Nitish Kumar and with it the course of the BJP-JD(U) alliance. Kumar suddenly began to see himself as the rightful inheritor of Lutyens’ tradition. The traditional power elite propped up Nitish, and under normal circumstances it would have been a masterstroke.

https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/how-lutyens-delhi-derailed-nitish-kumars-political-career-and-with-it-the-prospect-of-biha-13662572.html

EasternEye – Concerns raised over Sikh activist’s sudden death

Despite earlier assertions by West Midlands police of conducting a thorough inquiry into Avtar Singh Khanda’s death, concerns were raised about the lack of essential investigative actions.

Kimberly Rodrigues

Birmingham – West-Midlands – UK, 05 January 2024. A senior Conservative MP, Neil O’Brien, has raised concerns about the sudden death of Sikh activist Avtar Singh Khanda in Birmingham last year.

Writing to Home Secretary James Cleverly, O’Brien who is the MP for Harborough questioned the circumstances surrounding Khanda’s death, particularly as it coincided with reported plots to kill Sikh activists in North America.

Expressing deep concern, O’Brien highlighted discrepancies in the police investigation.

Despite earlier assertions by West Midlands police of conducting a thorough inquiry into Khanda’s death, points were raised about the lack of essential investigative actions, such as gathering statements from family, friends, colleagues, employers, retracing Khanda’s steps before his illness, or studying threats against him, The Guardian reported.

According to O’Brien, Khanda’s residence was also not visited and neither was a case number issued by the police.

The MP’s letter urged clarification from the police on the specifics of their investigation.

O’Brien said, “If this is correct, is it possible to find out from West Midlands police what their investigation consisted of, if not the actions above?”

Khanda, a vocal advocate for Khalistan, a separate Sikh state, was admitted to Birmingham’s Sandwell hospital in June and diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, passing away two days later.

His death was deemed natural, but skepticism lingered among friends and family, prompting calls for a formal inquest.

Despite initial assurances from West Midlands police of a comprehensive review, revelations later emerged that essential investigative measures weren’t undertaken. The police, instead, referred the matter to the coroner, stating no suspicious circumstances were found.

O’Brien’s letter marks a significant intervention by a prominent British politician and intensifies pressure on authorities to delve deeper into Khanda’s demise.

Representing a constituency with a substantial Sikh population, O’Brien emphasised the family’s plight, stressing on the necessity for a thorough investigation to offer closure.

He said, “While I obviously am in no position to judge the facts of this case, it is concerning that the bereaved family of this young man have been left feeling that his death has not been properly investigated, which much make it difficult for them to find peace.”

Concerns raised over Sikh activist’s sudden death

FirstPost – Britain paid Rwanda additional $126 million for contested migrant plan

The Rwanda scheme is at the centre of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s strategy to deter illegal migrants but as yet none have been moved there because of legal battles since the scheme was announced in 2022

FP Staff

London – UK 09 December 2023. The revelations about the growing cost of a policy, which legal experts have warned could yet fail, was slammed by the opposition Labour party and will likely to draw fresh criticism from some lawmakers within Rishi Sunak’s own party.

Britain paid Rwanda an additional 100 million pounds ($126 million) in April, on top of 140 million pounds it previously sent, as the bill for its contested plan to relocate asylum seekers to the East African country continues to rise.

The Rwanda scheme is at the centre of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s strategy to deter illegal migrants but as yet none have been moved there because of legal battles since the scheme was announced in 2022.

The divisive policy is now seen as a threat to Sunak’s leadership – with an election expected next year — after his immigration minister resigned this week.

On top of the 240 million pounds Britain has sent to Rwanda, London is also set to pay the East African country an additional 50 million pounds next year, according to a letter published by the British interior ministry on Thursday.

The revelations about the growing cost of a policy – which legal experts have warned could yet fail — was slammed by the opposition Labour party and will likely to draw fresh criticism from some lawmakers within Sunak’s own party.

“Britain can’t afford more of this costly Tory chaos & farce,” Labour’s shadow interior minister Yvette Cooper said on social media platform X.

But the new minister for legal migration, Tom Pursglove, justified what he called the 240 million-pound “investment” on Friday, saying that once the Rwanda policy was up and running it would save on the cost of housing asylum-seekers in the UK.

“When you consider that we are unacceptably spending 8 million pounds a day in the asylum system at the moment, it is a key part of our strategy to bring those costs down,” Pursglove told Sky News.

The money sent to Rwanda would help its economic development and get the asylum partnership with the UK up and running, Pursglove added. The payments to Rwanda were not linked to a treaty the two countries signed on Tuesday, the interior ministry letter said.

The treaty seeks to respond to a ruling by Britain’s Supreme Court that the deportation scheme would violate international human rights laws enshrined in domestic legislation.

“The Government of Rwanda did not ask for any payment in order for a Treaty to be signed, nor was any offered,” the letter said.

Sunak appealed to his Conservative lawmakers on Thursday to unite behind his Rwanda plan after Robert Jenrick quit as immigration minister on Wednesday, saying the government’s draft emergency legislation to get the scheme up and running did not go far enough.

FirstPost – Rishi Sunak PM – Ruanda Scheme

Panjab Times – Transnational Licence to Kill?

After Canadian allegations regarding Indian hand behind the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, indictment by Southern District of New York, of Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, for attempted murder of a Sikh activist, has not come as any surprise.

Gurmukh Singh

London UK – 07 December 2023. Unlike Canada, the US agencies have at least sufficient evidence for the court to issue an indictment. The plot is linked to an official of the Indian Government intelligence agency.

However, when discussing this sensitive topic, it must be remembered that nothing has been proven against the Indian state through the law courts. The earlier allegation by Canada against India was premature and ill-advised without proof.

It is time to reflect much more seriously about the multi-dimensional implications for the global image and internal unity of India. Community relations in diaspora countries can be affected. Let us focus on one or two important aspects from a Sikh viewpoint.

If this is a political gamble to win over extreme right nationalist votes in India in 2024 elections, then this would be a very short-sighted tactic. Indian politicians need to keep in mind that the unity of the diverse Indian communities and states, especially northern and south divides, can only be based on consensus.

Unity cannot be forced. Democratic institutional checks and balances must not be tampered with. When force is used, that will give rise to revolts. That is the historical lesson for ultra-right nationalist elements in India. More recent is the international dimension.

Killing Sikh activists abroad under whatever pretext, can only do longer-term damage to the image and interests of India even if its agencies become more sophisticated and do not get caught!

If the BJP Government is involved in the targeted killing of Sikh activists abroad as alleged by the US with prima facie evidence, then that will certainly weaken the position of the moderate Sikhs abroad.

That will not be in Indian interest. That is the repeated Sikh experience after 1984 because of continual provocations.

Otherwise, unfortunately, there is nothing new about extra-judicial killings in most countries including India. Covert operations by the US CIA readily come to mind. Panjab is accustomed to false encounters by the police. Late Jaswant Singh Khalra uncovered the illegal killings and cremations of 25,000 Sikhs.

Allegedly, even some police officers unwilling to co-operate were not spared. So, there is nothing new in extrajudicial killings in India. If such killings are now transnational then there is bound to be a reaction from other governments mindful of impact on own law and order.

Sikhs have experienced ten years of genocide which started in June 1984 with the invasion of Darbar Sahib and dozens of historical gurdwaras by own Indian Army. Victim families still await justice.

So, killing of Sikh activists abroad will not stop lawful Sikh activism but fuel it. Responsible community leaders and law enforcement agencies can only hope that any reaction will continue to be within the law.

In percentage terms diaspora Sikhs numbers are significant. By far, most Sikhs are law-abiding as other Indian communities. However, it is not always possible for community mentors to stop next generations to react to the killing of Sikh activists at home and abroad, allegedly, by Indian state agents.

Otherwise, as a senior Sikh Indian colleague observed recently, Sikh history and aspirations may be unique but so is the Sikh demonstrated sense of belonging and contribution for the well-being of this land, India.

Gurmukh Singh OBE

Principal Civil Servant retd (UK)
Panjab Times – London UK

The Print – Nijjar-Pannun effect: RAW downs shutters in North America 1st time since inception in 1968

One of two officers moved out was head of RAW station in San Francisco & another was second-in-command of its operations in London, it is learnt. RAW was founded in 1968.[centre]

Praveen Swami

London – UK, 30 November – 2023. Two senior Research and Analysis Wing officers were asked to leave their stations in major Western cities earlier this summer, ahead of a decision by United States prosecutors to initiate criminal charges in the wake of the spy agency’s alleged role in an assassination campaign targeting pro-Khalistan activists, intelligence sources have told ThePrint.

RAW was also blocked from replacing its station head in Washington, DC, it is learnt.

These actions were part of a series of moves intended to signal anger against what the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom saw as violations of the unwritten conventions which govern the operations of RAW in those countries.

The officers were the head of the RAW station in San Francisco and the second-in-command of its operations in London, the sources said. These are mutually disclosed positions and are not undercover.

The officers are of senior and mid-senior levels in the Indian Police Service (IPS). ThePrint is withholding their names as both remain in service with RAW.

In addition, the Government of India was denied permission to post an officer to replace RAW’s station chief in Washington, DC, who returned home earlier this year.

The new officer, in line with long-standing RAW convention, was to have taken charge before the scheduled retirement of the organisation’s former chief, Samant Goel, on 30 June.

The shuttering of RAW’s stations in San Francisco and Washington DC, coming on the back of the publicly-declared expulsion of its station chief in Ottawa, Pavan Rai, has left the organisation unrepresented in North America for the first time since it was founded during the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1968.

Government sources pushed back against claims that the removal of the three officers was driven by Western pressure. Instead, they attributed them to a series of “unfortunate coincidences of personal, family and administrative issues”.

The third case, the long pause in assigning someone to Washington, is simply due to administrative factors,” one RAW officer said, adding that it “will be addressed soon”.

The murder ‘plot’ itself, the officer insisted, did not involve RAW and while the inquiry will show if any or some individuals acted “on an unauthorised basis”, the organisation can’t be blamed.

Prosecutors in the United States have claimed that ethnic-Punjabi alleged drug dealer Nikhil Gupta was offered up to $150,000 by an individual claiming to work for the Indian intelligence services to arrange the murder of an unnamed Khalistan lawyer and activist.

Though the indictment does not name the purported victim or the Indian intelligence service, government sources have told ThePrint that US officials told interlocutors in New Delhi that RAW conspired to assassinate top Khalistan activist and lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

Following the gangland-style killing of alleged Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June, The Washington Post revealed Wednesday that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns had met with their counterparts in India earlier this year to demand accountability in the case.

The expulsion of the RAW officer in San Francisco, Indian government sources said, was intended to underline their message that the US would not cooperate with Indian intelligence if the agency continued offensive operations in the West, an Indian intelligence officer familiar with the case said.

According to the source, British intelligence had, however, voiced unhappiness on several occasions over the increasing involvement of RAW in Sikh diasporic politics in the country under former chief Goel, a Punjab-cadre IPS officer who served in operations against Khalistan terrorists before joining RAW.

“The general practice with these things,” says one senior RAW officer, “is that an overenthusiastic intelligence officer will be called in by the secret service of the host country, and told not to be a naughty boy.

There might be a gentle reminder that the officer is under surveillance, just like their officers in our country. If the problem really escalates, the Ambassador or High Commissioner might be involved, but things have never gone this far.”

Friction between RAW and countries where it operates disclosed stations in the West are not new. Four prosecutions related to RAW operations have taken place in Germany alone, the only country where, because of historical circumstances, it operates two disclosed stations.

In 2020, Germany ordered India to withdraw one RAW officer, serving in the agency on deputation from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). German intelligence officer Uwe Kehm was expelled in retaliation.

The case led to the conviction of former asylum-seeker Balvir Singh to one year in prison and a €2,400 fine for allegedly spying on Khalistan supporters in the city.

Earlier, a Frankfurt court gave Manmohan Singh, a journalist running pro-Khalistan online news platform in Germany, an 18-month sentence for spying on Kashmiri and Sikh secessionists for RAW’s Frankfurt station.

Earlier, in 2015, a German immigration officer working in North Rhine-Westphalia was prosecuted for accessing government databases to sell information on suspected Khalistan activists to RAW.

Eight Indian nationals, all former naval officers, are also on death row in Qatar, on espionage-related allegations, while a number of other Indian nationals have been held for spying across the Middle East.

Goel himself had been at the centre of frictions with the United Kingdom’s intelligence services in 2012, when he served as head of RAW’s London station, after MI5 and MI6 claimed he was seeking to recruit Khalistan-linked figures already in their service.

The spat, former RAW officers recall, led to behind-the-scenes diplomatic drama between the two countries, with the United Kingdom alleging Goel was using the station to penetrate their Khalistan-linked intelligence operations.

There has been no occasion in the past, though, where RAW has been alleged to have carried out assassinations in the West.

Edited by Amrtansh Arora

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                                     Hardeep Singh Nijjar - Research and Analysis Wing 

‘Pannun plot’: Gujarat Police scour records for Nikhil Gupta, indicted in US. DGP says ‘none found yet’Indictment filed in US court says Gupta ‘involved in international narcotics and weapons trafficking and has a criminal past in Gujarat’. DGP says search into records still under way.ThePrint

The Tribune – Sikh community fights for elderly woman facing deportation from UK

London – UK, 26 November 2023. The case of an elderly Indian Sikh woman, which first came to light back in 2019, has continued to attract widespread community support in the West Midlands region of England as her supporters fight against her deportation.

Gurmit Kaur, 78, came to the UK in 2009 and Smethwick has been home to her ever since, reads an online petition attracting over 65,000 signatures since it was launched in July 2020.

More recently, “We Are All Gurmit Kaur” has been running across social media as the local community continues to rally around the widow.

“Kaur has no family to turn to in the UK and no family to return to in Punjab, so the local Sikh community of Smethwick have adopted her,” reads the petition on Change.Org.

“She applied to stay in the UK but has been refused even though she has no family to return to in Punjab, India. Gurmit is a very kind woman. Most of her days are spent volunteering at the local gurdwara,” it reads.

The UK Home Office maintains that Kaur was still in contact with people in her home village in Punjab and would be able to readjust to life there.

Salman Mirza, an immigration advisor for the Brushstroke Community Project, who started the petition and is among those helping Kaur through the visa appeals process, told the BBC that her ordeal has been like torture for her.

“She has a derelict house in the village, with no roof and would have to find heating, food and resources in a village she hasn’t been to in 11 years. It’s like water torture, it’s like a slow death, she’s never had the right to work and provide for herself,” he said.

A Home Office spokesperson said while it cannot comment on individual cases, “all applications are carefully considered on their individual merits and on the basis of the evidence provided”.

Kaur first travelled to the UK in 2009 to attend a wedding and was initially living with her son. After becoming estranged from her family, she went on to rely on the kindness of strangers. She has widespread support within her local community where she regularly volunteers at local charities.

Can readjust to life in Punjab: Home Office

The UK Home Office maintained that Gurmit Kaur was still in contact with people in her home village in Punjab and would be able to readjust to life there.

A Home Office spokesperson said while it could not comment on individual cases, “all applications are carefully considered on their individual merits and on the basis of the evidence provided”

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/sikh-community-fights-for-elderly-woman-facing-deportation-from-uk-566224

Scroll.in – Sending Indian workers to Israel would be ‘craven green-light for war crimes’, says British NGO

The statement by FairSquare came after Israel on 03 November deported thousands of Palestinian workers from Gaza.

FairSquare – UK, 11 November 2023. British human rights group FairSquare on Friday urged the Indian government not to send its citizens to Israel to replace Palestinian workers who have been deported, saying it would be a “craven green-light for war crimes”.

In a statement, FairSquare said that the Builders Association of Israel had on 01 November announced that it hoped to get 1 lakh Indian workers to the country as Israeli forces waged war on Gaza.

Israel launched the assault in retaliation for a deadly attack by Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, on 07 October.

On 03 November thousands of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip were deported to the besieged territory, reported the Associated Press.

Their work permits were arbitrarily cancelled after the conflict began, FairSquare said. “Thousands were illegally detained in Israel amidst credible allegations of serious abuses including torture,” the non-governmental organisation focused on migrant worker rights added.

On Thursday, India’s foreign ministry said that Israel has made no request to recruit workers from the country but indicated that New Delhi would be open to such an agreement. Any such initiative “if taken up, would be long-term”, ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

In its statement, FairSquare warned that agreeing to such requests would further enable Israel’s war crimes.

Palestinian officials have said that 10,812 Gaza residents have been killed in air and artillery strikes by Israel since the fighting started last month. About 40% of the victims are children.

“As one of the world’s largest democracies, India should devote its efforts to ensuring a ceasefire not profiting from more violence,” FairSquare Director Nicholas McGeehan said.

The organisation flagged “serious risk” of exploitation of Indian workers if sent to Israel.

It said that 57.3% of 193000 Palestinians worked in Israel and settlements in the West Bank in 2022.

But the United Nations Security Council has described the settlements as “a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace”, FairSquare noted.

The group said allowing recruitment of Indian workers would support economic activity in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory. This would also enable Israel’s “forced displacement of the Palestinian population”, it added.

FairSquare even highlighted that international trade unions have accused Israel of exploiting Palestinian workers employed in construction sector.

According to a Human Rights Watch report in 2015, Thai workers in Israel’s agriculture sector were paid salaries below the legal minimum wage, forced to work long hours, subjected to unsafe working conditions, denied their right to change employers and housed in non-residential structures.

There are 18000 Indians working in Israel, with the majority employed as caregivers, FairSquare said on Friday. In May, Israel signed an agreement with India allowing another 42,000 Indian workers, most of them from construction sector, to migrate for work.

FairSquare’s appeal came on the same day when major Indian trade unions also requested the Centre not to send any workers to Israel as such a step would amount to “complicity” with Israel’s war on Gaza.

On Friday, Israel revised downwards the toll from the October 7 attack by Hamas to approximately 1,200 against a previous government estimate of over 1,400, AFP reported.

“It is due to the fact that there were a lot of corpses that were not identified and now we think those belong to terrorists…not Israeli casualties,” spokesperson of Israel’s foreign ministry said.

https://scroll.in/latest/1058969/sending-indian-workers-to-israel-would-be-craven-green-light-for-war-crimes-says-british-ngo

The Telegraph UK – US, UK back Canada in diplomat row, asks New Delhi to cooperate in Nijjar murder case

Canada on Friday said it was temporarily suspending in-person operations at consulates in several Indian cities and warned of visa processing

Washington – USA, 25 October 2023. The United States and Britain on Friday urged New Delhi not to insist Canada reduce its diplomatic presence in India and expressed concern after Ottawa pulled out 41 diplomats amid a dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist.

Canada has alleged Indian involvement in the June murder in a Vancouver suburb of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom India called a “terrorist.” India denies the allegation.

“We are concerned by the departure of Canadian diplomats from India, in response to the Indian government’s demand of Canada to significantly reduce its diplomatic presence in India,” USA. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Washington has said it took Canada’s allegations seriously and, along with London, urged India to cooperate with Canada in the murder probe even as Western powers have been reluctant to openly condemn India.

Analysts say the USA and the UK do not want to damage ties with India, which they view as a counterbalance to their main Asian rival China.

But Friday’s statements from the U.S. State Department and Britain’s Foreign Office have been the most direct criticism by Washington and London of New Delhi thus far in this case.

“We do not agree with the decisions taken by the Indian government that have resulted in a number of Canadian diplomats departing India,” a spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office said.

Canada withdrew 41 diplomats from India after New Delhi last month asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence following Canada’s allegations over Nijjar’s killing.

Canada on Friday said it was temporarily suspending in-person operations at consulates in several Indian cities and warned of visa processing delays.”Resolving differences requires diplomats on the ground.

We have urged the Indian government not to insist upon a reduction in Canada’s diplomatic presence and to cooperate in the ongoing Canadian investigation,” the U.S. State Department said, adding that it expects “India to uphold its obligations under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”

Britain’s Foreign Office also cited the Vienna Convention. It said “the unilateral removal of the privileges and immunities that provide for the safety and security of diplomats is not consistent with the principles or the effective functioning of the Vienna Convention.”

https://www.telegraphindia.com/world/us-uk-back-canada-in-diplomat-row-asks-new-delhi-to-cooperate-in-hardeep-singh-nijjar-murder/cid/1974727

BBC News – Jagtar Singh Johal: Sunak raises the detention of Scot with Indian PM

The prime minister has confirmed that he raised the case of a Scottish Sikh who has been held by Indian authorities since 2017, in talks with the country’s prime minister.

Dumbarton – Scotland – UK, 09 September 2023. Rishi Sunak had faced pressure to highlight the case of Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, whose family claim has been the victim of torture.

More than 70 MPs demanded that Mr Sunak lobby for his release.

Earlier this week, the Foreign Office ruled out intervening in the case.

However, after speaking to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, Mr Sunak confirmed he raised the case along with other consular issues.

He did not provide details, but said: “The foreign office are continuing to provide support to Mr Johal’s family and will continue to do so”.

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Mr Johal, a 36 year-old campaigner for Sikh human rights, travelled to India in October 2017 to get married.

He was shopping with his wife when his family say he was snatched from the street by plain-clothes officers of the Punjab Police and forced into an unmarked car.

He says he was beaten and tortured by officers over the following days, and given electric shocks to his genitals, before being made to sign a blank confession document.

These allegations have been denied by the Indian authorities.

Mr Johal has remained in detention in a series of Indian prisons ever since, accused of funding the purchase of weapons used to assassinate a number of right-wing Hindu religious and political leaders in the Punjab.

‘Talk is meaningless’

He is currently facing eight charges of conspiracy to murder, linked to political violence in India, and could receive the death penalty.

He denies the charges against him and says his arrest and trial are political.

The UK government has previously refused to call for Mr Johal’s immediate release – saying it could be seen as interference in the judicial process and would not be in his best interests.

On the plane to Delhi, when asked if he would be raising the case, Mr Sunak had said: “I’ll be raising a range of things with Prime Minister Modi – this is something that, just so people are reassured, has already been raised on multiple levels on multiple occasions.”

On Friday, Mr Johal’s brother Gurpreet Singh – a lawyer and Labour councillor – accused Mr Sunak of allowing Mr Johal to “rot in jail.”

Human rights group Reprieve’s director Maya Foa said: “Theresa May ‘raised’ Jagtar’s case. So did Boris Johnson. But six years after his abduction and torture he’s still in prison, facing a possible death sentence for something he didn’t do.

“The government often says ministers have raised the case a hundred times, as if that makes their failure to seek the release of an arbitrarily detained British national any less shameful.

“What did Rishi Sunak say to Narendra Modi about the case and how did he respond? Without answers to these questions, the prime minister’s talk is meaningless.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-66765233