UK Police keep Khalistan supporters away from Indian mission as pro-Amritpal protest held

Khalistan supporters protested outside the Indian high commission in London for the second time in four days on Wednesday.

This time, however, police were present to keep protesters away from the high commission, and barricades, too, were put up to secure the building further.

Visuals shared by news agency ANI 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.

On March 19, a pro-Khalistan activist, who was part of a group protesting the crackdown against Amritpal, a Khalistan propagator, 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.

India’s ‘retaliation’

Also on Wednesday, in a move widely seen as India’s retaliation for the earlier incident, barricades placed outside the UK’s high commission in New Delhi, as well as the ones outside the British envoys’ residence in the national capital, were removed.

There were, however, no reports of any reduction in security personnel at the mission.