The UK foreign office on Thursday condemned the breach of security during external affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Chatham House in London on Wednesday for an interactive session at the think tank.
A group of Khalistani activists were protesting with their yellow flags opposite Chatham House and one of them broke through the cordon and approached Jaishankar’s car as it was leaving the premises.
A video doing the rounds on social media showed the police stopping the man and pushing him back to the barricade. A PTI report from London quoted the Metropolitan Police as saying no arrests had been made.
“We strongly condemn the incident that took place outside Chatham House yesterday during the external affairs minister’s visit to the UK. While the UK upholds the right to peaceful protest, any attempts to intimidate, threaten, or disrupt public events are completely unacceptable.
“The Metropolitan Police acted swiftly to address the situation, and we remain fully committed to ensuring the security of all our diplomatic visitors, in line with our international obligations,” a spokesperson of the foreign, commonwealth and development office said.
The condemnation came after India registered its protest and issued a statement criticising the security breach.
“We have seen the footage of a breach of security during the visit of the external affairs minister to the UK. We condemn the provocative activities of this small group of separatists and extremists. We deplore the misuse of democratic freedoms by such elements. We expect the host government in such cases to fully live up to their diplomatic obligations,” an external affairs ministry spokesperson said.
India has time and again objected to the protests mounted by Khalistani supporters in Western democracies, including the UK. Though Khalistani activism calls for dismemberment of India, the UK government allows these protests on the premise that it cannot stop people from exercising their freedom of expression if they agitate peacefully.
While the group protesting outside Chatham House was small, there have been instances in the recent past when the gatherings have been larger and had turned violent.
In March 2023, separatists vandalised the Indian high commission in London and an attempt was made to bring down the Tricolour. On that occasion, India removed security barricades around the British high commission and the high commissioner’s residence in the capital but maintained that this was done to remove traffic obstructions and was not a retaliatory move.
‘Stolen Kashmir’
Jaishankar was leaving the building after a well-attended interactive session that saw him field a range of questions, including one on Kashmir, when he was asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi could use his friendship with US President Donald Trump to solve the problem.
Jaishankar replied: “We have done a good job solving most of it. Removing Article 370 was step number one. Restoring growth and economic activity and social justice in Kashmir was step number two. Holding elections, which were done with a very high turnout, was step number three.
“I think the part we are waiting for is the return of the stolen part of Kashmir which is under illegal Pakistani occupation. When that’s done, I assure you, Kashmir solved.”
‘Terrorist’ arrested
Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday claimed they had arrested a “terrorist” of the banned Babbar Khalsa International from Kaushambi district with the help of their Punjab counterparts.
“Our special task force and a team of Punjab police arrested Lazar Masih from Kokhraj in Kaushambi in a joint operation and interrogated him. He confessed that he is a member of Babbar Khalsa International and works in close coordination with the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency. Masih said he had planned to organise an attack on the Mahakumbh and Ayodhya but could not execute it for some reason,” Prashant Kumar, the director-general of UP police, told reporters.
Additional reporting by Piyush Srivastava
