NIA raids 31 places in Punjab, Haryana over Indian mission attack in London

In a major crackdown against those involved in the attack on the Indian high commission in London, the National Investigation Agency on Tuesday raided 31 locations in Punjab and Haryana to unravel the full contours of the conspiracy and bring to book the culprits, an official said.

The high commission of India in London was attacked on March 19 by a group of around 50 people during a pro-Khalistan protest.

They committed criminal trespass, injured officials, disrespected the Indian flag and damaged public property.

Searches were carried out in various districts including Moga, Barnala, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, SBS Nagar, Amritsar, Mukhtsar, Sangrur, Patiala and Mohali in Punjab, and Sirsa in Haryana, a spokesperson of the National Investigation Agency said.

The official said the raids led to the seizure of digital data containing information related to those accused of being involved in the attack on the high commission and other incriminating documents and evidence.

"Massive raids were conducted across the two north-Indian states (Punjab and Haryana) as part of the NIA's efforts to unravel the bigger conspiracy behind the London attack," the spokesperson of the anti-terror federal agency said.

The attack was allegedly organised by UK-based Gurcharan Singh of the Dal Khalsa, Avtar Singh Khanda of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and Jasvir Singh, and many of their associates, both Indian and foreign nationals. They were identified during investigation, the official said.

In May, a team of the NIA had visited the UK to probe the case. Subsequently, crowdsourcing of information was carried out to identify UK-based entities and individuals involved in the incident.

The NIA said it is leaving no stone unturned arrest perpetrators of the attack, their associates and their supporters, based in India and abroad.

"The NIA has been carrying out extensive investigations into the incident with a view to ensuring there is no repeat of such breach of security, disrespect to the Indian national flag or any threat to Indian interests abroad," the spokesperson said.