Eight more people were, on Friday, arrested in connection with the murderous attack on Lt. Gen. (retired) K. S. Brar in central London on Sunday.
Three were held on Thursday, bringing the total number of arrests to 11, including two women. The names or ethnicity of those arrested will not be known until they are formally charged, if at all, but they were thought to be of "Asian appearance’’. Their ages ranged from 20 to 40, with most of them in their 30s.
Giving details of Friday’s arrests, police said that two were arrested at a residential address in the Hillingdon borough of London-a 42-year-old man on suspicion of assisting an offender and a 38-year-old woman on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
Three men-- aged 42, 30 and 37--were detained in the fashionable Kensington and Chelsea area; and three were picked up from the nearby equally posh Holland Park. The latter were aged 32, 31 and 20.
Three more men were arrested at the same Holland Park address over immigration offences but their arrests were not related to the Brar investigations, police stressed.
All were being questioned while the police continued to appeal for more information.General Brar suffered injuries on his face and neck when he was stabbed by four men as he and his wife were returning to their hotel near Oxford Street after dinner.
He called it a "pure assassination attempt’’ by Khalistani sympathizers for his role in the controversial Operation Blue Star in 1984 to flush out militants from the Golden Temple Complex. He said they had long beards and wore dark clothing and long black jackets.
The incident came amid reports that the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) had become increasingly active in the UK despite a ban on its activities under terror laws since 2001.
