Boris Johnson Accuses India of 'Arbitrability' Detaining Alleged Sikh Separatist for Over Four Years

New Delhi has regularly raised concerns about the activities of Sikh separatists with the British authorities. During UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to India in April, PM Modi told him that separatists “take advantage of freedoms” in democracies, according to Indian officials.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accused the Indian authorities of “arbitrarily” detaining British-Sikh national who has been lodged in a prison in the northern state of Punjab since 2017, according to British media reports.

Johal, a resident of the Scottish town of Dumbarton, has been charged by India’s National Investigative Agency (NIA), the federal counter-terrorism organization, of being a member of banned Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF). Johal was arrested while he was in Punjab for his wedding in November 2017.

The KLF advocates for a separate Sikh homeland, or Khalistan, primarily comprising the Indian state of Punjab. The Khalistan movement in India reached its peak in the 1980s, when a military crackdown on the separatists culminated in the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, who were unhappy with New Delhi’s actions.

Johal is one of the KLF aides named in a chargesheet in the killing of Ravindra Gosain, a member of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in October 2017. The RSS is the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Johal’s brother in Scotland, who has been running a media campaign, denies the charges levelled against him.

However, his arrest in India, has sparked outrage among Sikh groups in the UK and Scotland, with Opposition Leader Keir Starmer as well as several other Labour Party parliamentarians having urged the Boris Johnson administration to negotiate his release with the Indian government.

“Ministers and officials of the Government have consistently raised the UK’s concerns directly with the Government of India about Mr. Johal’s treatment and his right to a fair trial. We have done so on almost a hundred occasions since Mr. Johal’s detention in November 2017,” Johnson wrote in a letter dated 21 June to Starmer, but it was only reported in UK media on Thursday.

Prior to surfacing of the letter, the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also stated back in May that Johal has been “arbitrarily” detained in India.

It called upon New Delhi to “take urgent action to ensure the immediate unconditional release” of Johal and award him “compensation” as well as other “reparations, in accordance with international law”.

Since his arrest, New Delhi has maintained that Johal’s rights have been respected. At the same time, the Indian government has raised concerns over the activities of Khalistani separatists, many of who are based in the United Kingdom, Canada and even the US.

Johnson was in India for a state visit in April. Back then, he had revealed that the UK was “sensitive” to India’s concerns on Khalistani extremism.

“We have a very strong view in the UK that we don’t tolerate extremist groups. We have set up an anti-extremist task force to help India,” Johnson said during the visit.

More recently, Johnson met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in Germany this week. As of now, it remains unclear if the issue was raised during the meeting.

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