Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi is once again in headlines for the death of a young Sikh activist, Avtar Singh Khanda.
According to a report published by The Guardian, the newspaper noted that Avtar Singh “was on Indian authorities’ radar”.
Khanda had received “threats to his life” after a “wide-ranging campaign” in which he was falsely accused in Indian media of tearing down the Indian flag outside the Indian high commission in London during the March 2023 protests, the British newspaper said.
What happened to Avtar Singh Khanda?
Avtar Singh Khanda died suddenly in 2023 as he remained in the hospital for only four days. The official cause of death was acute myeloid leukaemia, a blood cancer.
Khanda applied for asylum in the UK in 2016, saying his life was at risk from Indian authorities. His father and uncle were reportedly murdered in extrajudicial killings after advocating for a Sikh homeland, Khalistan, in the 1990s, and from 2015 onwards.
According to a pathologist, who was provided with Khanda’s death certificate, “Consideration should be given as to whether the deceased could have been exposed to substances that may result in the development of an acute leukaemia.”
Hence, it means that Singh could have been poisoned.
Let’s not forget that last year, former Canadian PM publicly said that evidence showed that Indian government agents had engaged in activities that “threaten public safety in Canada”, including “clandestine information-gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians, and involvement in over a dozen threatening and violent acts, including murder”.
After this, India started blaming Canada for “providing space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten, and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.”
