Avtar Singh Khanda, pro-Khalistani leader who was behind the protests at the Indian High Commission, dies in UK 

Pro-Khalistani leader and UK-based chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) Avtar Singh Khanda passed away. Khanda was suspected of being poisoned. The medical records accessed by India Today suggest otherwise. These records state that the pro-Khalistani leader was suffering from blood cancer.  

The deceased Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief was the mastermind behind the attack on the Indian High Commission in London, where the Indian flag was pulled down by the protestors. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) identified Khanda and three other separatists as the main accused in connection with the incident.  

Not only this, Khanda also helped pro-Khalistani separatists Amritpal Singh evade the Punjab police and other agencies for 37 days between March and April. Amritpal Singh surrendered before the police at a gurudwara in Punjab’s Moga on April 23.

Singh was shifted to the Dibrugarh jail in Assam, where eight of his aides including Pappalpreet Singh are held under the National Security Act (NSA). Khanda is also believed to have been instrumental in establishing Amritpal Singh as the chief of Waris Punjab De after Deep Sidhu passed away in January 2022.  

Avtar Singh Khanda was the son of the slain KLF terrorist Kulwant Singh. In 2007, Khanda went to the UK on a study visa before taking asylum in 2012. Soon after he entered the UK, Khanda went the separatist route with the support of a few gurudwaras allegedly ran by Khalistani sympathisers.  

These gurudwaras collected funds for terrorism in the name of human rights violations against the Sikh community in India despite being places of worship. He reportedly headed the KLF under the codename ‘Ranjodh Singh’ after former KLF chief Harmeet Singh was killed in Pakistan in January 2020. 

Indian agencies have repeatedly stated that Khanda is radicalizing and training youth in extremist and separatist ideology. His name first occurred in the list handed over to the UK government in 2015 for planning and conspiring against India. Successive UK governments, however, allowed Khanda to live in Britain on political asylum.

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