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MURDER ATTEMPT: Kuldip Singh Brar was attacked by four men in London on September 30

BRITISH police on Friday (October 5) arrested eight more people in connection with the attempted murder of an Indian general in central London last week, Scotland Yard said in a statement.

Retired lieutenant general Kuldip Singh Brar, 78, was attacked by four men late on Sunday (September 30) while on a private visit to the British capital.

The men assaulted Brar, who led the controversial 1984 operation against Sikh fighters in the Golden Temple of Amritsar in north-western India, with what was believed to be a knife or sharp implement.

“The attack may have caused concern among our Indian and Sikh communities,” a release from London’s Metropolitan Police Service said.

“While we are aware that there has been a great deal of speculation about possible motivation for this attack, it would not be helpful to our investigation to comment further at this stage.”

Brar was with his wife, who was uninjured, near London’s busy Oxford Street shopping area when attacked on September 30.

The four assailants were of Asian appearance and described as having long beards, dressed in dark clothing and long black jackets.

Police arrested four others in connection with the stabbing on Thursday (October 4).

Some 15 people have been arrested in total - 13 men and two women aged 20 to 45 - and are being held at police stations in central and west London.

Ten were being held on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, two on suspicion of assisting an offender and another three were taken into custody on Friday (October 5)  for immigration matters unrelated to the investigation.

Search warrants have also been issued for residential addresses in South Shields, in northeast England, Birmingham and London.

Brar was treated in hospital for his injuries before returning to India with his wife.

The Indian general commanded Operation Blue Star, ordered by then-prime minister Indira Gandhi, to drive out militants in Sikhdom’s holiest shrine who were calling for an independent Sikh homeland.

Four months after this operation, Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards in retaliation.

Anti-Sikh riots ensued in which thousands lost their lives, most of them in New Delhi.

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