Sikhs from around the world, including right here in Surrey where “Free Jaggi” rally is planned for this weekend, joined British Sikhs in a campaign to free a young British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal who traveled to India for marriage but was apparently picked up by Punjab police from Delhi airport and brought to the state on bogus charges of murders of rightwing Hindu leaders and subsequently denied legal representation and tortured.
LONDON – Sikhs from around the world, including right here in Surrey where “Free Jaggi” rally is planned for this weekend, joined British Sikhs in a campaign to free a young British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal who traveled to India for marriage but was apparently picked up by Punjab police from Delhi airport and brought to the state on bogus charges of murders of rightwing Hindu leaders and subsequently denied legal representation and tortured.
Members of British Parliament as well as Canadian politicians such as Alberta Premier Rachel Notley have called on Indian authorities to release the innocent man, whom police are charging simply based on his calls for justice in the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and other human rights abuses by Indian authorities and police.
British Sikhs are also concerned about the serious predicament of Johal, a 30-year old Sikh from Dumbarton being held in jail in India.
The Sikh Federation (UK) wrote to over 100 MPs within 24 hours through constituents to help secure the release of the young man from Scotland who recently got married. There are 135 MPs with at least 1,000 or more Sikh constituents.
Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “Our target is to initially contact over 100 MPs in the first 24 hours of this lobbying campaign before Jagtar appears in court on Tuesday. We are confident this number can be doubled within the first week of the campaign.”
“The letter we have drafted for constituents urges MPs to contact Jaspal’s local MP Martin Docherty-Hughes and to write to the Foreign Secretary to give the case a much higher priority to secure Jaspal’s immediate release and return to the UK.”
Many MPs are also expected to lodge official complaints with the Indian High Commission in London on the unfair and illegal treatment of the British national in India and threats by Indian police to his family members living in the UK.
Preet Kaur Gill the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs has met with the family and will be sending a letter from a cross party group of MPs to the Foreign Secretary and the Indian High Commission.
