The Prime Minister expresses concern when a country’s sovereignty is violated, people familiar with the developments said on Sunday when asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised issues related to rising cases of Khalistani extremism in the UK with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Rishi Sunak on Friday condemned the rising instances of hate crime in the UK instigated by Khalistani separatist groups and said that his government is taking strong steps to curb pro-Khalistani extremism.
“No form of extremism or violence like that is acceptable in the UK. And that’s why we are working very closely with the Indian government to particularly tackle ‘PKE’ Pro-Khalistan Extremism,” Sunak said.
Khalistani separatists earlier this March attacked the Indian High Commission in London and vandalised the premises and also disrespected the tricolour. They threatened the staffers inside the high commission premises. Similar attacks were carried out on missions across Canada, the US and Australia.
“It’s not right and I won’t tolerate it in the UK,” Sunak further added.
Sunak also said that earlier this year his government announced steps to bolster the UK’s capability to tackle “pro-Khalistan extremism”.
He referred to the meeting between UK security minister Tom Tugendhat and Union minister for external affairs S Jaishankar after which Tugendhat announced that new funding worth Rs 1 crore was sanctioned to tackle Pro-Khalistan Extremism in the UK.
“Our security minister recently was just in India talking to his counterparts. We have working groups together to share intelligence and information so that we can root out this kind of violent extremism,” Sunak said.
Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Modi met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit on Saturday where both leaders reflected on the progress in diverse areas of bilateral cooperation as per the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership as well as the Roadmap 2030, particularly in economy, defence and security, technology, green technology and climate change, health and mobility sectors, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a press release said.
““Two nations, one ambition. An ambition rooted in our shared values, the connection between our people and of course, our passion for cricket,” Sunak posted on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, along with photos of him and PM Modi after the meeting.
The press release also said that PM Modi and his UK counterpart reviewed the progress made on the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations and expressed hope that the remaining issues will be resolved in a timely fashion so that both nations can reach a “balanced, mutually beneficial and forward-looking” deal.
(with inputs from Shalinder Wangu)
