Indian fake news busted amid Khalistan voting in UK

LONDON: Merely a fortnight after Indian media’s reports alleging that London Metropolitan Police had cracked down and shut the Khalistan Referendum Voting by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), yet another voting event for Khalistan Referendum took place in Slough, London.

Around 10,000 British Sikhs attended the Gurdwara Ramgarhia at Woodland Avenue Slough to vote for Khalistan Referendum. Slough is a heavily Sikh populated neighborhood and thousands of Sikhs from the neighborhood lined up since early morning to vote in the referendum which continued till 5pm.

Indian media in a coordinated campaign ran fake news three weeks ago that Scotland Yard had raided SFJ’s London office and recovered fake machines and papers and that a Pakistani man had been arrested too but the London police immediately clarified that no raid had taken place and no arrest was made. It turned out that Indian media had aired fake news to dissuade the British Sikhs from taking part in the voting process and relied on fake news.

Earlier on December 10th, more than 6000 people showed up to vote in Geneva, Switzerland to kickstart the European Phase of Khalistan Referendum. According to Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), the organizers of Khalistan Referendum, voting in Slough was organized on the request of Sikh community members from Slough who approached the Punjab Referendum Commission (PRC) – the independent panel of election experts supervising and overseeing the Khalistan Referendum – asking for setting up of the polling station in the neighborhood to give an opportunity to the Sikhs of the area who could not vote so far.