Sign in

Avtar Khanda, face of March 19 protest at Indian high commission in London, is dead

While Khanda aka Ranjodh Singh's medical report is awaited, the pro-Khalistani elements want to blame India for poisoning.

Updated on: Jun 15, 2023, 14:10:49 IST
Share
Share via
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
Copy link
  • copy link

The principal orchestrator of the March 19 violence at the Indian High Commission in London and self-styled chief of designated terror outfit Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) Avtar Singh Khanda died in Sandwell hospital in Birmingham today. The cause of death is still not known, and the medical report is awaited.

Avtar Singh Khanda was the principal orchestrator of the  March 19 violence at the Indian High Commission ion London.
Avtar Singh Khanda was the principal orchestrator of the March 19 violence at the Indian High Commission ion London.

Watch: Avtar Khanda, The Man Who Targeted Indian Mission In UK, Dies | Details About The Khalistan Leader

Khanda, also known as Ranjodh Singh, was a political asylum seeker in the UK and was instrumental in radicalizing the Sikh youth towards the separatist movement for so-called Khalistan. His father was a KLF terrorist who was gunned down by security forces in 1991 and his mother was related to another KLF terrorist Gurjant Singh Budhsingwala with strong links to Pakistani deep state.

According to inputs from the UK, the supporters of Khanda want the medical report to indicate poisoning so that they can declare him a martyr and blame the Indian security agencies for murder. However, Khanda was suffering from blood cancer and had been admitted to the Sandwell and West Birmingham hospital about a fortnight ago.

Khanda along with three other separatists have been identified by the National Investigating Agency as the principal accused of dishonouring the Indian flag at the London High Commission during an orchestrated protest on March 19. Despite the UK intelligence agency MI-5 being alerted by the Indian High Commission about the anticipated violence on March 19, the UK Police was conspicuous due to lack of action against the protestors.

Like other Khalistani sympathizers, Khanda entered the UK through time tested method of “student visa” and quickly got associated with the separatist bandwagon active in some of key gurudwaras in the UK. These gurudwaras are being managed by Khalistani supporters and are used to collect funds for terrorism in the name of human rights violations against the Sikh community in India.

The core UK establishment has always been indifferent to Sikh separatist activity and the Indian intelligence had pointed out Khanda's violent activities on three different occasions prior to March 19, 2023. Khanda used to spew venom against India and Indians on UK-based pro-Khalistani KTV along with Jagjeet Singh Jeeta before UK Ofcom shut it down in April 2022 after repeated protests by the Indian community in Britain. Khanda along with others identified as Paramjeet Singh Pamma, Joga Singh, Kuldip Singh Chaheru, Gursharan Singh and others have been part of almost all protests outside the Indian High Commission in London in the past.

  • Shishir Gupta
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Shishir Gupta

    Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather and major national developments.