WASHINGTON: Senior Sikh Community leader Dabinderjit Singh, has revealed that prominent Pakistani journalist Mr. Murtaza Ali Shah who works for GEO News is facing life threats from the Indian state over his coverage of the Khalistan movement and the pro-Khalistan Sikh activists. 

In an interview with Sikh channel Akaal TV, Sikh Federation UK’s leader Dabinderjit Singh has revealed that the Metropolitan Police is aware of the threats to the life of Mr. Murtaza Ali Shah by the Indian state. The claims have also been shared on X [formerly Twitter] by The Sikh Federation (TSF). 

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Singh, who founded the Sikh Federation around ten years ago and is a retired civil servant, revealed that the GEO TV journalist is on an Indian hit list for his coverage of the issues faced by the Sikh community in particular, his coverage of the Khalistan Referendum and Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a group which is banned in India. 

Linking Shah’s work to the threat, Singh said: “Murtaza Ali Shah covers Sikh issues for GEO TV but is not a Sikh. In particular, Murtaza Shah has been covering the Khalistan Referendum organized by Sikhs For Justice in the UK, Canada, Switzerland, and Italy.” The senior Sikh leader added that Shah is known for reaching these places from London, for coverage of the movement. 

Last year, India banned Shah’s social media accounts in India alongside other prominent journalists namely Rana Ayyub and C J Werleman. The country is known for targeting anyone who reports on Kashmir and the Khalistan issues. 

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During the interview, Singh mentioned that the UK’s intelligence center “GCHQ monitors everything, and it must be in their knowledge what threats exist” for activists. Singh added that the sudden death of Sikh activist Khanda in Birmingham last year must also be in the knowledge of the GCHQ, days after media reported Khanda’s name had been part of India’s hit list. According to Singh, the GCHQ must also have intelligence from Canada and other allies about India’s plans. It is pertinent to mention that the Sikh community in the UK has been the number one target for almost forty years going as far back as 1984, when the then-Indian government reached out to UK’s Margaret Thatcher requesting her to arrest Sikhs involved in protests. 

More recently, Pakistani and Canadian intelligencies have released documents exposing India for its involvement in terrorism abroad, including the murders within Pakistani borders such as the killing of Paramjit Singh Panjwar – one of India’s most wanted men killed on Pakistani soil last year on 6 May. According to a Daily Pakistan report, in a press conference in June last year, Pakistan’s then Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Qazi said the government had “credible evidence” that linked Indian agents to the killing of two Pakistani citizens on Pakistani soil. 

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Referencing the murders of Shahid Latif in Azad Kashmir and Muhammad Riaz in Sialkot, Qazi had said: “These are killings-for-hire cases involving a sophisticated international set-up spread over multiple jurisdictions”. He further stated that the method behind these killings was similar to the cases in Canada and the US. He produced evidence to support his stance highlighting that Indian agents Ashok Kumar Anand and Yogesh Kumar recruited Muhammad Abdullah Ali via Telegram to kill the two within Pakistani territory. 

Similar incidents have pushed agencies within the UK, US, Canada, and Pakistan to issue warnings to pro-Khalistan activists in the last few months to protect themselves against Indian state agents. In connection with this, last year the Canadian government openly accused India and its government of the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a local leader of the Khalistan Referendum and the SFJ in Canada. Similarly, the US State Dept claimed it had foiled an assassination plot against the SFJ founder and pro-Khalistan leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York. 

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Such incidents, including the mysterious death of Avtar Singh Khanda in the UK’s Birmingham area, have sparked calls for justice. There are reports that the UK intelligence has issued Osman Warning letters to activists of the Sikh community alerting them to possible threats from India and its agents. It is pertinent to mention that the Sikh Federation has criticized the UK government for their alleged “appeasing” of the “Hindutva regime”.

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