TOI correspondent from London: Police had to be called after pro-Khalistan activists disrupted an Indian high commission outreach consular event in Sutton, south London, last weekend inside a primary school building.
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Pro-Khalistan activists barged into the building holding “Khalistan flags”, fought with organisers and said the Indian high commission had no right to hold the event there as “this was the UK and we are UK taxpayers”. They shouted “Khalistan Zindabad” through a megaphone and demanded to see the Indian officials.
The purpose of the all-day event, organised by Indian Friends of Sutton, was for Indian high commission staff to deal with queries over passport renewals, OCI cards and visas. They hold such events in different locations regularly; 500 people attended the Sutton event.
A Tamil language class for children was taking place on one of the floors of the building as the disruption unfolded.
One of the organisers told TOI: “We told them to go outside as they were scaring the kids. I told them the high commission staff here are clerks. Yet they kept demanding they wanted to meet HCI officials.”
The organisers then called the police who sent four police officers. One pro-Khalistan activist told the police: “If they want to do any of their operations, they should run from their embassy as they have killed our people. We are here to hold them accountable.”
The police made the activists go outside. “They then protested outside the school where they tore the tricolour and played football with it and stood on it. They were provoking us continually, threatening and calling us cowards. This event was for any religion, not just Hindus, and PIOs of all religions came,” the organiser added.
The Indian mission is now taking up the matter with the UK govt via the appropriate channels.
