11 Sikh MPs Condemn Henry Nowak Murder as 530,000 British Sikhs Fear Collective Blame
Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Jun 5
11 Sikh MPs Condemn Henry Nowak Murder as 530,000 British Sikhs Fear Collective Blame
3 articles · Updated · Financial Times · Jun 5
Summary
Eleven Sikh MPs issued a statement condemning Vickrum Digwa’s murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak and urged the public not to blame Sikhs collectively for the crime.
Video released this week showed police initially accepting Digwa’s false claim of racial abuse and overlooking Nowak’s insistence he had been stabbed, pushing the December killing back into national politics.
Nigel Farage called for “pure cold rage,” and disorder later broke out in Southampton as rioters tried to reach Digwa’s family home, deepening anxiety in Sikh communities.
Sikh leaders also rejected Digwa’s attempt to link the weapon to the kirpan exemption, saying the long knife he used was entirely different from the small ceremonial blade carried by baptised Sikhs.
In Gravesend and London, Sikhs said abuse online and renewed scrutiny of religious knife exemptions had left families shaken, though community figures urged calm and said intercommunal relations remain stronger than in the 1970s.