INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi faces protests in Glasgow if he arrives for COP26.
It’s not yet known if the leader will attend the landmark climate summit, with a foreign ministry representative telling Reuters he was yet to decide.
However, Sikh activists plan to gather in George Square on October 30 to show their opposition to a raft of controversial issues from the farm laws that provoked mass demonstrations across India to the detention of Scotsman Jagtar Singh Johal. Known by friends as Jaggi, he’s been held in custody in India since November 2017 and has issued detailed claims of torture, but has yet to face trial and MPs have described his treatment as arbitrary detention.
Gurdwara groups, youth organisations and more are expected to attend. The event also calls for “justice” for the 1984 pogroms against Sikhs. Jaggi’s family believe he was targeted by authorities in part because of his blogging about that violence.
His brother Gurpreet Singh Johal, a solicitor, said: “I would call upon all in Scotland to stand in solidarity with a fellow Scot who has been arbitrarily detained in India for almost four years without formal charges or trial to tell Modi this cannot continue and he is not welcome in Scotland.”
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