Highlights
- High-profile Sikh activist receives police security advice following intelligence of threats, which he links to Indian government.
- MI5 investigations into state threats have grown 48 per cent since 2022, with India listed alongside China and Russia as country of concern.
- Two UK-based Sikh nationalists tell Guardian they have been advised to increase security following incidents at their homes.
Police have advised a prominent Sikh activist in the UK to install security cameras at his home and reinforce door locks because of threats from Hindu nationalist elements, raising fresh concerns about transnational repression on British soil.
Paramjeet Singh Pamma, 52, said he had been visited by police and received verbal advice to increase his security due to intelligence suggesting threats to his safety. The activist accused UK ministers of failing to take "relentless" transnational repression by India seriously.
Singh Pamma is a figure in the Khalistan movement, a campaign for an independent Sikh state that is outlawed in India.
Indian government officials describe the movement as terrorist and a threat to national security. The Indian embassy declined to comment.
According to MI5, foreign governments are increasingly targeting dissidents on UK soil, with investigations into state threats growing by 48 per cent since 2022.
The joint committee on human rights listed India as a country of concern alongside China and Russia in its 2024-25 report on transnational repression.
The claims come as the UK pursues a closer relationship with Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government.
Last May, after three years of negotiations, the UK agreed a trade deal with India, long touted as one of the biggest prizes of Brexit.
Threats and incidents
Singh Pamma, who has been forced to live separately from his family after threats, told The Guardian he regularly reported threats to police but they only began taking his complaints seriously after the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh activist in Canada.
Then prime minister Justin Trudeau said intelligence agencies had linked the killing to Indian government agents.
"The repression we are going through has been relentless, it is crossing borders and reaching into our families now. This is terror, basically, by the Indian government," said Singh Pamma, who asked for his location not to be disclosed.
He claims to have been a victim of regular threats and intimidation since moving to the UK, including threatening phone calls and visitors coming to his home with guns in broad daylight.
In another incident, several people visited his family home, breaking his wife's car windows while his children watched from upstairs.
Gurcharan Singh, another Sikh nationalist activist in Slough, has also been told by UK police that they know of credible threats to his safety. He has a private security team and receives police visits nearly every two months.
A Home Office spokesperson said they did not comment on individual cases or intelligence matters. "We are proud of our diverse communities, and British Sikhs make an immense contribution to the strength of our society.
Their safety, like that of everyone in the United Kingdom, remains our highest priority," the spokesperson told The Guardian.
The high commission of India in London did not respond to a request for comment.
