Kulwant Singh Mothada is afraid for his life.
He spends a lot of his day checking the 4 CCTV feeds that cowl his home. When he drives to work, he usually modifications his automotive and route.
This is a quiet suburb of Wolverhampton, gray and moist once I go to. It is difficult to think about a lot ever taking place right here.
But Mr Mothada is fearful that, even in these sleepy streets, he may very well be assassinated by the Indian state. And he has good purpose to fret.
Others are already useless.
“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 tv 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 cost sheet drawn up by the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) – the nation’s counter-terror division – in opposition to 16 people, all accused of violating terror legal guidelines. Six of them stay within the UK.
Last yr, Mr Mothada was watching an Indian tv channel, when a information report got here on. In bombastic model, it named “enemies of the state” – and Mr Mothada was certainly 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 outdoors or journey, we’re very cautious and since then have not left the nation as a result of [the Indian government] has given us such a giant menace.”
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 proof of something apart from pure causes. But many within the Sikh activist neighborhood suppose the demise is suspicious.
Mr Mothada is evident, 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 make sure that we’re not in a position to increase our voices in worldwide nations.”
And he thinks that the UK – unlike Canada and the US – is ignoring the issue to appease India.
He said: “Since the hit listing was launched, I’ve been feeling insecure, that one thing might occur sooner or later.
“If I am assassinated then it’s the British government’s total responsibility.”
Sky News requested the Indian High Commission for remark. A press officer acknowledged the request however mentioned that it will not be doable to provide a response earlier than publication, due to the co-ordination with numerous completely different authorities departments.
‘I’m a law-abiding citizen’
The NIA alleges that the organisation Mr Mothada is a part of, Sikhs for Justice, is a radical extremist group trying “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 increase our voices peacefully on how the Sikh neighborhood are handled 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 photographs of the 2 assassins of Indira Gandhi are additionally proudly displayed.
I put it to Mr Deol that many would class these males as terrorists – and that hanging their photographs helps the Indian place, that the Khalistan motion is just not merely about peaceable protest but in addition 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 protected in India. If they communicate up, in the event that they’re vocal, they’re attacked.”
And that fear is now felt in the UK, Mr Deol says: “The Sikhs are frightened and upset, that even on this present local weather, Sikhs are being focused throughout borders in several nations.
“They’re concerned about the British government not speaking up about it.”
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A spokesperson for the Home Office instructed Sky News: “The UK is proud of its diverse communities, and British Sikhs contribute immensely to the strength of our society.
“We regularly assess potential threats within the UK, and take the safety of people’ rights, freedoms, and security within the UK very significantly. Anyone who believes {that a} crime has been dedicated or is anxious for his or her security ought to contact the police.”
Back in Wolverhampton, for all the precautions Kulwant Singh Mothada is taking, he remains defiant and committed to his activism.
“I wish to give a message to the Indian authorities and businesses on behalf of the Sikh neighborhood: You can’t silence mine or the Sikh neighborhood’s voice by giving demise threats or sharing hit lists.”
Source: information.sky.com”