India fail in attempt to extradite British Sikh

A UK judge ruled against an attempt by the Indian government to extradite a 44-year-old Sikh man last month.

The married father was the target of an extradition attempt due to allegations of his connection with the Khalistan Zindabad Force group and supposed plans to assassinate a high-ranking Indian state official with a history of facilitating human rights breaches against Sikhs.

NOTE- Due to concerns about reputation damage and continued Indian authorities’ targeting of the individual involved, details of this case which may cause harm to him have been left out of this article.

The extradition attempt, revealed by community group Sikh Youth UK, has been ongoing for over a year. The individual involved chose to fight the case without community support and kept details of the extradition attempt hidden until now.

In December, news that UK Home Secretary Priti Patel agreed to extradite three British Sikhs to face the death sentence in India shocked many. However, India has continually attempted to extradite countless Sikhs from the UK based on pure allegation since the 1980s. Those targeted are nearly always involved in activism which involves being critical of the human rights breaches of the Indian state, an action which only furthers evidence of India’s criminalisation of Sikh dissent.

Whilst the ruling means the Sikh man involved is free to stay in the UK without the threat of extradition, there is nothing stopping another attempt from happening by the Indian government, who are known to repeat such attempts.

A source close to the Sikh targeted for extradition told Sikh PA, “The individual involved wished to keep this case to himself but he is just one of many that are being targeted in this way.

“India is continually building bridges with the UK to strengthen efforts to crush Sikh activism which is critical of the Indian state. There may be others we don’t know about who are facing extradition attempts right now too.

“Unfortunately for Sikhs, India is being aided by a narrative being pushed by some in the UK media and by the police which claims the UK suffers with Sikh extremism and have potentially violent radicals linked to the Khalistan movement here.

“The repercussions of such narratives is the justification of the targeting of Sikh individuals in the UK. This recent outcome is great and something to celebrate but there will be many more battles to come.”

Earlier this month Sikh PA were part of a UK Sikh community meeting on the #UKSikhExtradition situation.

With internationally renowned human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce leading insight into the case, 51 different Sikh organisations made a series of agreements to fight against these ongoing extradition cases.

See the letter released about the meeting below.