‘We can be killed in the UK at any time’: Sikh activist fears for life after being named on Indian ‘hit list’

Published

1 year ago

February 14, 2024

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Kulwant Singh Mothada is afraid for his life.

He spends much of his day checking the four CCTV feeds that cover his house. When he drives to work, he regularly changes his car and route.

This is a quiet suburb of Wolverhampton, grey and wet when I visit. It is hard to imagine much ever happening here.

But Mr Mothada is fearful that, even in these sleepy streets, he could be assassinated by the Indian state. And he has good reason to worry.

Others are already dead.

“The hit list was shown on TV with our pictures and our faces have been seen worldwide,” Mr Mothada tells Sky News in his first television interview.

“So I’m a lot more cautious than before because we can be killed here in the UK at any time.”

The “hit list” is a charge sheet drawn up by the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) – the country’s counter-terror department – against 16 individuals, all accused of violating terror laws. Six of them live in the UK.

Last year, Mr Mothada was watching an Indian television channel, when a news report came on. In bombastic style, it named “enemies of the state” – and Mr Mothada was one of them.

“Of course I was shocked that they showed the report on TV with my picture,” he says.

“We know that we’ve become the government’s targets, so that does not mean that we are safe and can get on with our day-to-day as normal.

“Whenever we go outside or travel, we’re very careful and since then haven’t left the country because [the Indian government] has given us such a big threat.”

Mr Mothada, 62, is an activist who supports a Sikh homeland – separate from India – called Khalistan.

So were others on the list, several of whom are now dead.

A string of deaths

In May last year, Paramjit Singh Panjwar was gunned down in Lahore, Pakistan.

Six weeks later, Hardeep Singh Nijar was shot dead outside a gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship, in Vancouver.

The Canadian government caused a diplomatic incident when it publicly accused India of being behind the assassination – a claim vociferously denied by India.

The same month, the FBI foiled an alleged plot to assassinate another activist on the list, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

A Department of Justice indictment says the person who allegedly tried to organise the killing said: “We have so many targets.”

And also that same June, Avtar Singh Khanda, a British activist, died suddenly.

Police insist there was no evidence of anything other than natural causes. But many in the Sikh activist community think the death is suspicious.

Mr Mothada is clear, saying: “That government is looking to assassinate anyone outside of the country who raises their voices for human rights, violations and justice.

“This is to ensure that we’re not able to raise our voices in international countries.”

And he thinks that the UK – unlike Canada and the US – is ignoring the issue to appease India.

He said: “Since the hit list was released, I’ve been feeling insecure, that something may happen in the future.

“If I am assassinated then it’s the British government’s total responsibility.”

Sky News asked the Indian High Commission for comment. A press officer acknowledged the request but said that it would not be possible to supply a response before publication, because of the co-ordination with various different government departments.

‘I am a law-abiding citizen’

The NIA alleges that the organisation Mr Mothada is part of, Sikhs for Justice, is a radical extremist group attempting “to propagate sedition as well as enmity on the grounds of region and religion, to radicalise impressionable youth, to cause disturbance to peace and harmony and to raise funds for terrorist activities”.

I put that to Mr Mothada.

Mr Mothada replies: “I live here in the UK and am a law-abiding citizen. The United Nations gives us the right of self-determination.

“All we do is raise our voices peacefully on how the Sikh community are treated in Punjab.”

It is an extremely contentious issue. Even in the UK, a protest outside the Indian High Commission last June turned violent, although Mr Mothada says this was because of another group.

A violent, complex history

But in India, in the 1970s and 1980s, some parts of the campaign for a separate Sikh state in the province of Punjab did result in conflict.

The armed insurgency was met by a harsh government crackdown. Thousands were killed.

In June 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, where separatists had holed up. Hundreds, possibly thousands, died.

Months later, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, which led to a series of bloody anti-Sikh riots.

The insurgency largely petered out inside Punjab by the 1990s but the Khalistan movement lived on most vocally in the Sikh diaspora – in countries like Canada, the US and the UK.

That history is very much still alive – and still very complex, even in Britain.

Martyrs and assassins

Half an hour’s drive from Mr Mothada’s house is Guru Nanak Gurdwara, a large place of worship in Smethwick, Birmingham. Some 25,000 people attend each week.

Its president, Kuldeep Singh Deol, shows me around, stopping to point a row of photos on the wall called The Martyrs of the Sikh Homeland Khalistan. Among them are some of the victims of the Golden Temple massacre.

But photos of the two assassins of Indira Gandhi are also proudly displayed.

I put it to Mr Deol that many would class those men as terrorists – and that hanging their photos supports the Indian position, that the Khalistan movement is not simply about peaceful protest but also encourages political violence.

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” Mr Deol says.

“These guys stood up, when the Indian government was going round from village to village, after attacking the Golden Temple, they went round from village to village eliminating anyone who looked like a Sikh.”

“As Sikhs, we’re supposed to stand up against atrocities and defend others. But if we can’t defend ourselves we can’t defend others. It was a very bad time 35, 40 years ago. And for us, it’s still continuing.

“People aren’t safe in India. If they speak up, if they’re vocal, they’re attacked.”

And that fear is now felt in the UK, Mr Deol says: “The Sikhs are worried and upset, that even in this current climate, Sikhs are being targeted across borders in different countries.

“They’re concerned about the British government not speaking up about it.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office told Sky News: “The UK is proud of its diverse communities, and British Sikhs contribute immensely to the strength of our society.

“We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and take the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK very seriously. Anyone who believes that a crime has been committed or is concerned for their safety should contact the police.”

Back in Wolverhampton, for all the precautions Kulwant Singh Mothada is taking, he remains defiant and committed to his activism.

“I want to give a message to the Indian government and agencies on behalf of the Sikh community: You cannot silence mine or the Sikh community’s voice by giving death threats or sharing hit lists.”

World

Inside a NATO base in Poland – as residents bordering Russia say ‘scare tactic’ is needed

Published

4 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Inside a NATO base in Poland - as residents bordering Russia say 'scare tactic' is needed

Along the thin strip of beach and woodland known as the Vistula Spit which marks the northernmost demarcation between Poland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, there is not much in the way of a border.

Just some torn wire fencing and a few rotten posts which seem to stagger drunkenly into the shallows of the Baltic Sea.

Beneath a sign barring entry, we find a couple of empty bottles of Russian cognac and vodka.

It doesn’t feel like the edge of NATO territory.

“I don’t see much protection. It’s not good,” says Krzysztof from Katowice, who has come to inspect the border himself.

“We have to have some kind of scare tactic, something to show that we are trying to strengthen our army,” says Grzegorz, who lives nearby.

“At the same time I think I would not base the defence of our country solely on our army. I am convinced that Europe or America, if anything were to happen, will help us 100%.”

Poland is investing massively in its defence, with military spending set to hit 4.7% of GDP in 2025, more than any other NATO country.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he will introduce voluntary military training for men of any age, and women too should they wish, so the army has a competent reserve force in the event of war.

He is investing $2.5bn in stronger border fortifications between Russia and Belarus, a project called East Shield which will include anti-tank obstacles, bunkers and potentially minefields too.

Along with its Baltic neighbours, Poland is withdrawing from the Ottawa convention against the use of land mines. It hasn’t committed to using them, but it wants to have that option.

We’ve been granted access to one of the cornerstones of Polish, and European defence, which is a couple of hours drive from the Vistula spit at the Redowicze military base.

Aegis Ashore Poland, together with its sister site in Romania, are the land-based arms of NATO’s missile defence shield over Europe, which is run by the US navy.

They are symbols of the US commitment to NATO and to the protection of Europe.

And despite changes at the top of the Pentagon it is “business as usual”, says Captain Michael Dwan who oversees air and missile defence within the US Sixth Fleet.

“Our mission to work with NATO forces has been unchanged. And so our commitment from the United States perspective and what capability we bring to ballistic missile defence and the defence of NATO is championed here in Poland.”

As far as Russia is concerned, NATO’s two missile defence bases in Romania and Poland represent a NATO threat on their doorstep and are therefore a “priority target for potential neutralisation”, per Russia’s foreign ministry.

NATO says the installations are purely defensive and their SM-3 interceptor missiles are not armed and are not intended to carry warheads. Russia counters they could easily be adapted to threaten Russia.

Not the case, Captain Dwan says.

“It’s not a matter of moving offensive weapons here into the facility, the hardware and the infrastructure is simply not installed.

“It would take months or years to change the mission of this site and a significant amount of money and capability and design.”

With so much marked “secret” on the site, it seems amazing to be granted the access.

But for NATO, transparency is part of deterrence. They want potential adversaries to know how sophisticated their radar and interception systems are.

They know that if they carried warheads on site, that would make them a target so they don’t.

Deterrence also depends on whether potential adversaries believe in the US’s commitment to NATO and to Europe’s defence.

On an operational level, as far as the troops are concerned, that commitment may still be iron-clad.

But as far as its commander-in-chief goes, there is still – as with so much around Donald Trump’s presidency – a great deal of uncertainty.

In the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon President Trump suggested he might bundle a potential US troop drawdown in Europe together with the issue of EU trade and tariffs.

“Nice to wrap it up in one package,” he said, “it’s nice and clean”.

Probably not the way Europe sees it, not with a resurgent Russia on their doorstep, economic tailwinds breeding animosity and the notion of Pax Americana crumbling at their feet.

World

Asianmarkets bounce back after Trump pauses higher tariffs for most countries – despite increasing those on China to 125%

Published

10 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Asianmarkets bounce back after Trump pauses higher tariffs for most countries - despite increasing those on China to 125%

Asian markets have reacted positively after Donald Trump paused his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on most of America’s trading partners for 90 days, despite the US president increasing those on China to 125%.

There have been fears of a global recession and stock markets around the world had plummeted after Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday 2 April.

However, Japan’s Nikkei share average was up 8.2% by 3.50am BST, while the broader Topix had risen 7.5%.

Similarly, the S&P 500 stock index had jumped 9.5% and global markets bounced back following Mr Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that the increased tariffs on nearly all trading partners would now be paused.

Tariffs latest: Trump gives reasons for pausing some tariffs

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said the “90-day pause” was for the “more than 75 countries” who had not retaliated against his tariffs “in any way”.

He added that during this period they would still have to pay a “substantially lowered” 10% tariff, which is “effective immediately”.

It is lower than the 20% tariff that Mr Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea.

The UK was already going to face a blanket 10% tariff under the new system.

Mr Trump said the increased 125% tariff on imported goods from China was “effective immediately”.

He added: “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA, and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”

What’s in Trump’s tariff pause?

Here’s what Donald Trump’s tariff pause entails:

‘Reciprocal’ tariffs on hold

• Higher tariffs that took effect today on 57 trading partners will be paused for 90 days

• These include the EU, Japan and South Korea, all of which will face a baseline 10% duty instead

• Countries that already had a 10% levy imposed since last week – such as the UK – aren’t affected by the pause

China tariffs increased

• Trump imposed a higher 125% tariff on China

• That’s in addition to levies he imposed during his first term

• China had hit the US with 84% tariff earlier today, following tit-for-tat escalations

No change for Canada or Mexico

• Canadian and Mexican goods will remain subject to 25% fentanyl-related tariffs if they don’t comply with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement’s rules of origin

• Compliant goods are exempt

Car and metal tariffs remain

• Trump’s pause doesn’t apply to the 25% tariffs he levied on steel and aluminium in March and on cars (autos) on 3 April

• This 25% tariff on car parts does not come into effect until 3 May

Sectors at risk

• Copper, lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals are expected to be subject to separate tariffs, in the same way autos are

Hours after Mr Trump announced the pause on tariffs for most countries, a White House official clarified that this did not apply to the 25% duties imposed on some US imports from Mexico and Canada.

The tariffs were first announced in February and Mexico and Canada were not included in the “Liberation Day” announcements.

Hours before the 125% tariff on China was revealed, Beijing said it was increasing tariffs on US goods by 50%.

It meant tariffs of 84% would be enforced on US goods – up from the 34% China had previously planned.

China ‘want to make a deal’

Asked why he posted “BE COOL” on Truth Social hours before announcing his tariff pause, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House: “I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line.”

“They were getting yippy, you know, were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid,” he added.

Mr Trump continued: “China wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how to go about it.

“[They’re] quite the proud people, and President Xi is a proud man. I know him very well, and they don’t know quite how to go about it, but they’ll figure it out.

“They’re in the process of figuring out, but they want to make a deal.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of a grand negotiating strategy by Mr Trump.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” she said, adding that the news media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here”.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also insisted Mr Trump had strengthened his hand through his tariffs.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” he said.

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Mr Bessent said Mr Trump decided to raise tariffs on China because Beijing hadn’t reached out to the US and instead increased its own levies on US goods.

Downing Street said that the UK will “coolly and calmly” continue its negotiations with the US.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “A trade war is in nobody’s interests. We don’t want any tariffs at all, so for jobs and livelihoods across the UK, we will coolly and calmly continue to negotiate in Britain’s interests.”