NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India on Thursday condemned a security breach during its foreign minister’s visit to London when a protester broke through a police cordon, stood in front of the minister’s car and tore the Indian flag before being taken away.
India’s foreign ministry said it expects Britain to live up to “diplomatic obligations” and called the group of protesters a “small group of separatists and extremists”.
Videos posted on social media showed a handful of protesters waving flags of a Sikh separatist movement called Khalistan and shouting slogans outside think tank Chatham House in London on Wednesday where Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was speaking.
A member from the group broke away from the police cordon as Jaishankar was leaving the venue and was taken away by police officers within seconds.
Jaishankar is on a six-day trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland.
“We deplore the misuse of democratic freedoms by such elements. We expect the host government in such cases to fully live up to their diplomatic obligations,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for the Indian foreign ministry, said in a statement.
Britain’s foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The Khalistan movement advocates a separate Sikh homeland carved out of Hindu-majority India and is considered a security threat by the Indian government. It has been a flashpoint in an increasingly tense relationship between Canada and India.
In April 2023, India asked Britain for increased monitoring of UK-based supporters of the Khalistan movement after protesters carrying “Khalistan” banners last month detached the Indian flag from the diplomatic mission’s building.
(Reporting by Shivam Patel, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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