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.
Image: Mr Mothada has CCTV covering his house which he checks daily
“So I’m a lot more cautious than before because we can be killed here in the UK at any time.”
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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.
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Image: NIA’s ‘hit list’ with Mr Mothada in the middle
“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.
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.
Image: Martyrs displayed in Guru Nanak Gurdwara
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.”
Image: ‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’, says Kuldeep Singh Deol
“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.”
Ukraine’s representatives are preparing for renewed peace talks in the US, while dramatic footage has shown Russian tankers being hit by naval drones.
President Zelenskyy said a delegation headed by national security chief Rustem Umerov was on its way to “swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war”.
They are due to be greeted by US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior US official told Reuters news agency.
Image: National security chief Rustem Umerov is leading the delegation. Pic: Reuters
After the US-Ukraine talks, an American delegation is expected to travel to Moscow to meet President Putin.
It comes after Mr Trump released a 28-point proposal last week that would hand swathes of land to Russia and limit the size of Kyiv’s military.
It was widely seen as heavily favouring Russia and led Mr Zelenskyy to swiftly engage with American negotiators.
President Trump said on Tuesday his plan had been “fine-tuned”.
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Ukraine peace plan in 60 seconds
In his evening address on Saturday, the Ukrainian leader said: “The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end.”
Mr Zelenskyy’s team in the US is without his former chief of staff and lead negotiator, Andrii Yermak, as he quit on Friday after officials raided his home amid a corruption scandal.
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What do we know about Ukraine’s corruption scandal?
Tankers hit by ‘Sea Baby’ drones
Ukrainian drones were shown hitting two of Russia‘s so-called “shadow fleet” oil tankers in the Black Sea in footage released on Saturday.
Friday’s attack was carried out by the country’s security service and its navy, an official told Reuters. They said both ships “sustained critical damage” that took them out of service.
A security source told Associated Press that domestically-made “Sea Baby” drones were used.
The tankers were under sanctions and heading to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, the official said.
They have been identified as the Kairos and Virat.
Image: The blasts hit tankers off Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Pic: Turkish Directorate General for Maritime Affairs/Reuters
The 274m-long Kairos suffered an explosion and caught fire en route from Egypt to Russia on Friday, Turkey’s transport ministry said. The crew was evacuated.
The Virat was reportedly struck about 35 nautical miles offshore.
It was attacked by unmanned vessels and sustained minor damage to its starboard side, the Turkish ministry said.
Russia deploys a fleet of often ageing, uninsured and unmarked tankers to circumvent sanctions on its oil exports, which continue to help pay for the Ukraine war.
Another Ukrainian attack halted operations at an oil terminal near the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Saturday.
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Russian drone and missile attack hits Kyiv
Andriy Kovalenko, from Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said special forces were responsible.
“Naval drones managed to destroy one of the three oil tanker berths of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium in the Novorossiysk area,” he wrote on Telegram.
Six killed in aerial attacks on Ukraine
Russia carried out another onslaught on the Ukrainian capital overnight into Saturday, firing 36 cruise and ballistic missiles and launching around 600 drones.
Officials said three people were killed in and around Kyiv, two in the Dnipropetrovsk region and one in a midday attack in Kherson region in the south.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 29 others were injured in Kyiv, largely due to falling debris from intercepted drones hitting buildings.
The attacks also hit Ukrainian energy facilities and left hundreds of thousands without power in the capital. Supplies have since been restored.
Targeting such infrastructure has become a familiar tactic from Russia over the winter, in what Ukraine officials say is the “weaponising” of the cold.
Grief was not lonely today in Hong Kong. Three days after the worst fire in the history of modern Hong Kong, it feels as though it has barely sunk in.
The weekend at least lent them time to pay tribute, and gave them some space to reflect.
People came in droves to lay flowers, so many a queuing system was needed.
Image: People queue with flowers near the site to mourn the victims of the deadly fire. Pic: AP
Official books of condolences were also set up in multiple parts of the city.
It was the first day large teams of investigators were able to enter the site. Dozens of them in hazmat suits were bused in, their work the grimmest of tasks.
Every so often you could see a flashlight peep through the window of an upper blackened window, a reminder that the fire services are still undertaking dangerous work.
But the reach of the authorities is ramping up here.
Image: Firefighters walk through the burned buildings after the deadly fire. Pic: AP
Yesterday a grass roots aid distribution centre was the vibrant heart of the response.
They received notice at 4am that they needed to pack up and move on. By 10.30am, the mountains of donations were gone, residents watched on, bewildered.
The task apparently will be handed over to professional NGOs.
“I think the government’s biggest concern is due to some past incidents,” one organiser tells us. “They may liken this to previous events. The essence looks similar.”
Image: Pic: AP
She’s careful with her words, but she’s clearly hinting at major pro-democracy protests that were crushed by authorities in 2019.
Any sort of mass gathering is now seen as a risk, the system is still very nervous.
And they might well be because people here are angry.
What, they ask, did the government know? What did it choose to ignore?
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3:14
How Hong Kong’s government failed to act on fire fears
Indeed, Sky News has learnt that residents raised their fears over fire safety connected to extensive renovations on Wang Fuk Court as early as September 2024.
They flagged the suspected flammability of green nets being used to cover the building.
An email response from the Labour Department was sent a few months later to Jason Poon, a civil engineer-turned-activist, who was working with residents. It insists that “the mesh’s flame retardant properties meet safety standards”.
But many clearly didn’t believe it. Posts spanning many months on a residents’ Facebook group continued to voice their fears.
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3:14
Hong Kong fire survivors supported by community
When a much smaller fire broke out in the city last month, one resident posted: “All the materials outside are flammable, I feel really worried.”
“I feel that same way” another replied. “The government has no sense of concern.”
For Poon, who dedicates much of his time to fighting lax safety standards in Hong Kong’s construction industry, the whole experience has been devastating.
“They knew all the maintenance was using corner-cutting materials, but they didn’t do anything,” he says.
“This is a man-made disaster.”
We put these allegations to Hong Kong’s Labour Department but they have not yet responded to our request for comment.
Grief may still be the prominent force here, but anger is not that far behind.
More than 300 people have died and dozens are missing following floods and landslides in Indonesia, which has also been hit by an earthquake.
Monsoon rains over the past week caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province.
The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged thousands of houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said.
As rescue workers continued their efforts on Saturday, the head of the country’s disaster mitigation agency said the number of dead had risen to at least 303 people. Authorities fear the figure will increase.
Image: Flooded buildings in Medan, North Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Binsar Bakkara
Other Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have also been affected by torrential rain in the last week, with authorities working to rescue stranded citizens, restore power and communications and coordinate recovery efforts.
On Friday, the Thai government said 145 people had been killed by flooding across eight southern provinces, while two deaths have also been confirmed in Malaysia. Sri Lanka, in South Asia, has also seen 46 deaths following a cyclone, authorities said.
Image: Medan, North Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Binsar Bakkara
The extreme weather was driven by tropical cyclone Senyar, which formed in the Strait of Malacca, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said.
Rescuers in Indonesia have been struggling to reach some areas cut off by damaged roads, and where communications lines have come down.
Relief aircraft have been delivering aid and supplies to the hard-hit district of Central Tapanuli in North Sumatra and other provinces in the region.
Image: Tanah Datar, West Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Ali Nayaka
The agency said West Sumatra’s Agam district had also been affected.
Pictures of the rescue efforts show workers trudging through waist-deep mud and areas filled with tree trunks and debris, searching for any victims potentially trapped.
In Aceh province, flooded roads meant authorities struggled to get tractors and other heavy equipment to hilly hamlets which were hit by mud and rocks in the deluge.
Image: Malalak, West Sumatra. Pic: AP/ Nazar Chaniago
Hundreds of police officers, soldiers and residents dug through the debris with their bare hands and spades as heavy rain hindered their efforts.
Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Sumatra island near Aceh province on Thursday, the country’s geophysics agency said.
Heavy seasonal rain from about October to March often causes flooding and landslides in Indonesia– an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands including Sumatra – where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.
Last week, almost 1,000 people from three villages on Java were forced to flee to shelters after the eruption of Mount Semeru, the island’s highest volcano.