Indian Embassy attack: UK resident involved in violence arrested by NIA

"The accused, identified as Inderpal Singh Gaba, a resident of Hounslow, UK, has been arrested for carrying out unlawful activities during the protests that took place on March 22, 2023. Investigation has so far revealed that the incidents in London on March 19 and 22 - were parts of a larger conspiracy to unleash vicious attacks on the Indian missions and its officials," an NIA spokesperson said.

According to the NIA, the attacks in London in March 2023 were found to be in retaliation to the action taken by Punjab Police against pro-Khalistani separatist Amritpal Singh on March 18, 2023.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had issued look out circulars (LOCs) against 15 people, who were identified from five videos of the violence. These videos were procured by an NIA team during its visit to the United Kingdom in May last year to investigate the incident and a suspected terror link involving Pakistan's ISI. In the videos, people were seen gathering outside the Indian High Commission in London and subsequently indulge in violence.

Upon the team's return to India, the NIA shared videos and photographs of 45 suspects in the public domain along with an appeal to help identify them. The agency, sources said, received around 850 calls in response. The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) as well as the immigration department also helped in the identification of the suspects.

On March 19, 2023, the Indian High Commission in London was attacked by a group of about 50 people, who have been accused of criminal trespassing, disrespecting the Indian national flag, destruction of public property and injuring High Commission officials. The orchestrators of the attack, as identified in the FIR lodged by an officer of the High Commission, include Gurcharan Singh of Dal Khalsa, UK; Avtar Singh Khanda from the Khalistan Liberation Force and Jasvir Singh.

"Khanda died in Birmingham in June and the NIA is in touch with the concerned department to get his death certificate for their case file," an official said.

During its investigation into the UK incident, the NIA questioned Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh and nine of his associates in Assam's Dibrugarh jail after they were found to have been in touch with Khanda, who is alleged to have instigated the protesters by shouting anti-India and pro-Khalistan slogans. "On August 1, 2023, raids were conducted at multiple places by the NIA in Punjab and Haryana after identifying some of the attackers. The raids led to seizure of digital data containing information related to the suspects," an NIA official said.