‘We can be killed in the UK at any time’: Sikh activist fears for life after being named on Indian ‘hit list’
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Clockwise: Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Avtar Singh Khanda, Paramjit Singh Panjwar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
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.
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.”
‘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.”
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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.”
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More than 600 dead in Indonesia and Thailand after floods and landslides – and Sri Lanka reporting more than 200 deaths from cyclone
The death toll following flooding and landslides in Indonesia and Thailand has risen to more than 600 – with nearby Sri Lanka also reporting more than 200 deaths after a cyclone.
Three people have also died in Malaysia, officials have said, due to the extreme weather in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
In total, Indonesian officials said 442 people had died and Thai authorities reported 170 deaths in the southern part of the country, as of midday UK time on Sunday.
People move a car damaged by floods in Songkhla province, Southern Thailand. Pic: AP
Rescuers search for flood victims in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Pic: AP
Rescue efforts were ongoing throughout the day, with more than four million people affected – almost three million in Southern Thailand and 1.1 million in Western Indonesia – by the effects of a tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait.
Indonesian relief and rescue teams have used helicopters to deliver aid to people they could not access because of blocked roads on the western island of Sumatra.
Rescuers search for victims at the site of a landslide in Adiankoting, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Pic: AP
Many areas have been cut off, while damage to telecommunications infrastructure has hampered communications.
Officials said on Saturday that they had received reports of people looting supply lines as they grow desperate for relief in other areas.
Hat Yai, the largest city in Thailand’s Songkhla province, received 335mm (13 inches) of rain on Friday last week, its highest single-day tally in 300 years.
After days of rain, meteorological authorities in Malaysia lifted tropical storm and continuous rain warnings there yesterday, forecasting clear skies for most of the country.
However, there are still about 18,700 people in evacuation centres, according to the country’s national disaster management agency.
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A road heavily damaged by a flash flood in Bireun, Aceh province, Indonesia. Pic: AP
A soldier uses ropes to cross a river during a search operation in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Pic: AP
More than 200 dead in Sri Lanka
Across the Bay of Bengal, Sri Lanka’s disaster management centre said in a situation report on Sunday that 212 people had died as a result of Cyclone Ditwah.
Another 218 people have been recorded as missing across the South Asian country’s 25 districts, and more than half a million people have been affected nationwide.
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Death toll rises to 146 in Hong Kong apartment complex fire as more bodies found in burned buildings
The death toll from a fire that tore through a Hong Kong apartment complex has risen.
Investigators are searching for bodies in the residential towers of Wang Fuk Court, where the blaze erupted on Wednesday.
Authorities say 146 bodies have now been found, rising from a previous reported total of 128.
A girl places flowers in front of the fire-damaged residential blocks at Wang Fuk Court. Pic: Reuters
Shuk-yin Tsang, the head of the Hong Kong police casualty unit, said another 100 people remained unaccounted for, and 79 people were injured.
Flames spread through seven of the eight towers of the complex, and the fire was not fully extinguished until Friday.
Police said they had completed searches through four of the affected buildings.
But a city official said they expected the search process to take three to four weeks.
People line up to offer flowers and prayers for the victims of the fire at Wang Fuk Court. Pic: AP
The burnt towers
Cheng Ka-chun, the police officer leading the search, said bodies had been found both in apartments and on the roofs.
He said: “It is so dark inside, and because of the low light, it is very difficult to do the work, especially in places away from the windows.”
Before the fire broke out, the towers had been undergoing renovations and were clad in bamboo scaffolding, draped with nylon netting, with windows covered by polystyrene panels.
Residents say they repeatedly warned about the potential flammability of the materials, but were told by the authorities that they faced “relatively low fire risks”.
Smoke rises after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court. Pic: AP
Firefighters work to extinguish the fire. Pic: AP
Now the authorities are investigating whether fire codes were violated amid growing public anger over the blaze.
Beijing has warned it will use a national security law to crack down on any “anti-China” protests that result.
‘Give justice to the families’
Over 1,000 people turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to the victims of the fire, which was Hong Kong’s deadliest in more than 75 years.
Mourners queued for more than a kilometre to lay flowers, some with sticky notes attached addressed to the victims.
People leave notes with well-wishes after the deadly fire. Pic: Reuters
Joey Yeung, whose grandmother’s apartment burned in the fire, asked for justice.
The 28-year-old said: “I can’t accept it. So today I came with my father and my family to lay flowers.
“I’m not asking to get anything back but at least give some justice to the families of the deceased – to those who are still alive.”
Another mourner, Lian Shuzheng, said: “This really serves as a wake-up call for everyone, especially with these super high-rise buildings.”
People offer flowers for the victims. Pic: AP
People offer flowers and pray for the victims. Pic: AP
‘Serious deficiencies’ in safety
An online petition demanding an independent probe into possible corruption and a review of construction oversight drew over 10,000 signatures before it was closed.
Another petition with similar demands attracted more than 2,700 signatures with its plea for “explicit accountability” from the government.
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City officials have announced they were suspending 28 building projects undertaken by the contractor that was renovating Wang Fuk Court, the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company.
They said the fire had “exposed serious deficiencies” in the safety of the company’s sites, “including the extensive use of foam boards to block up windows during building repairs”.
The burned towers and makeshift flower memorial. Pic: Reuters
The day after the fire broke out, two directors and an engineering consultant from a construction firm were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
Police said they also suspected the company’s leaders of gross negligence, without identifying the firm by name.
The three men were released on bail, but then rearrested by Hong Kong’s anti-corruption authorities, who made a further eight arrests.
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