Sikhs convicted in Indian general stabbing

Three Sikhs have been found guilty in the revenge stabbing of the Indian general who led a deadly raid on Sikhism’s holiest shrine in India.

Lieutenant General Kuldeep Singh Brar, 78, was attacked by a gang of four and slashed in the neck as he was walking with his wife near London’s busy Oxford Street shopping area in September last year. 

Mandeep Sandhu, Dilbag Singh and Harjit Kaur were convicted at Southwark Crown Court, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Wednesday.

Another man, Barjinder Sangha, had previously pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

The retired general was treated in a London hospital and discharged the following day.

Golden Temple raid

Brar spearheaded Operation Blue Star, a military raid against Sikh separatists in Amritsar’s Golden Temple that killed an estimated 1,000 people in 1984.

Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan, reporting from London, said that those connected with the attack on the temple are still the target of ill-feeling from many Sikhs wherever they are in the world.

Later that year, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards, triggering a further wave of retaliation that left nearly 3,000 Sikhs dead.

“This was a violent and life-threatening attack carried out by Sikh extremists on the streets of London’s West End,” said Mari Reid of the CPS’ Counter Terrorism Division in a statement.

Brar had been targeted in a highly planned and pre-meditated attack, the statement said.

“The couple was set upon in what was a swift, effective and terrifying ambush; Sandhu and Singh held Lieutenant General Brar down as Sangha slashed at his neck with a knife,” Reid said.

“The group clearly targeted (him) in revenge for his actions during his military career…”

The men will be sentenced in September at a date to be fixed.