NSA Ajit Doval to raise Khalistan issue with his UK counterpart Tim Barrow

National security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval will raise concerns over the activities of pro-Khalistan radicals with his UK counterpart Tim Barrow when they meet at Sardar Patel Bhawan in the national capital on Friday to discuss several bilateral issues, according to people aware of the matter said.

The meeting comes after the UK-based chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), and alleged handler of separatist Amritpal Singh, Avtar Singh Khanda, died under mysterious circumstances in a Birmingham hospital on June 15.

While Doval has been in touch with Barrow over the rise of pro-Khalistan extremism in UK, and its impact on the bilateral ties, India has serious concerns over the British core establishment ostensibly soft-pedaling the issue, the people said, asking not to be named.

The Narendra Modi government was upset when radicals led by Khanda desecrated the Indian Tricilour during a protest at the Indian high commission in London on March 19. Perhaps for the first time, the Delhi Police registered a first information report (FIR) over a crime committed abroad, and the case was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) at the instance of Union home minister Amit Shah

The Delhi Police special cell named Khanda, Gursharan Singh, and Jasvir Singh as the main perpetrators of the London incident, and NIA has now identified about a dozen suspects behind the flag-desecration incident, senior officials said, asking not to be named.

Though the national security set-up is tight-lipped about the Doval-Barrow meeting, the Indian NSA will raise the issue of Indian diplomats — including high commissioner Vikram Doraiswami and a consul general — being targeted by pro-Khalistan extremists in posters announcing a protest rally to the Indian high commission in London on July 8. The spark for the rally is the killing of KTF separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, ostensibly in a gang-related shooting, in Canada on June 19.

Doval is likely to seek guarantees from Barrow on the protection for Indian diplomats in UK, as well as surety on non-violation of Indian diplomatic premises by extremists, the people cited in the first instance said.