FOUR members of a Sikh gang which slashed the throat of the Indian general who oversaw the 1984 Amritsar Golden Temple assault were jailed by a British judge on Tuesday (December 10).
Retired lieutenant general Kuldip Singh Brar, who is in his late 70s, was attacked as he walked through London’s West End entertainment district with his wife Meena on September 30 last year.
Two men and a woman were found guilty of wounding with intent to cause Brar grievous bodily harm at a two-week trial in July. A third man had admitted the charge in January.
Brar survived the knife attack, which left him with a 30-centimetre (12-inch) cut across his jaw and neck and a separate eight-centimetre cut to the jaw.
Mandeep Singh Sandhu, 35, from Birmingham in central England, was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court in London.
Dilbag Singh, 37, was also jailed for 14 years, while female defendant Harjit Kaur, a 39-year-old Londoner, was sentenced to 11 years.
Barjinder Singh Sangha, 34, from Wolverhampton near Birmingham, was jailed for 10-and-a-half years.
The trial heard the gang targeted Brar, himself a Sikh, in revenge for his leading role in Operation Blue Star against Sikh militants in Amritsar, northwest India, which left at least 500 people dead.
The raid was aimed at flushing out militants who had occupied the Golden Temple, which is considered Sikhdom’s holiest shrine. The militants were demanding an independent Sikh homeland.
Kaur tracked Brar’s movements, while Sangha drew the knife as the other men held the retired general, the trial heard.
‘This was a pre-planned and organised attempt to assassinate General Brar for his military involvement in the siege of the Golden Temple in India in 1984,’ said Commander Richard Walton, head of the British police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
‘It was ultimately unsuccessful and we are pleased that the sentencing reflects the seriousness of this attack.’
