BREAKING: Bhai Paramjit Singh Pamma to Return to UK From Portugal

LONDON, UK—Sikh organizations across the globe have welcomed the release of Bhai Paramjit Singh Pamma, who was arrested in December 2015 in Portugal by the Interpol.  Francisca Van Dunem, the Minister of Justice in Portugal rejected the extradition request on the basis that Bhai Paramjit Singh had been granted asylum in the UK.  Following rejection of the case, Bhai Paramjit Singh Pamma is expected to return to UK soon.

“This decision is based on the fact that the Indian national qualification for refugee status given by the British authorities in September 2000, when he was granted asylum in that country and issued a valid travel document until April 24, 2023, which enables the move by several EU countries, including Portugal, “the Justice Ministry said in a statement,” a statement issued by the Ministry of Justice, Portugal, stated.

Several Sikh organizations led by the Sikhs for Justice and the Sikh Federation (UK) campaigned for Bhai Paramjit Singh Pamma.  The Sikh Organization for Prisoner Welfare also ran a successful campaign to fundraiser for the legal expenses.  Several UK MPs, particularly, John Spellar also played a prominent role.  It is also important to mention the role played by Kesri Lehar (UK) sevadars, who led peaceful protests despite harsh weather conditions.  Kesri Lehar activists were able to build pressure due to the protests, which eventually led to a meeting with the Portuguese Ambassador in UK, which was the turning point in this campaign.

Sikh Federation (UK) posted –

The Sikh Federation (UK) are delighted to announce the Paramjeet Singh Pamma has been released today by the Portugal Authorities, and will very soon be back in the UK with his family.

On behalf of Paramjeet SIngh and his family we would like to thanks all those who participated and supported in the political and legal campaign and pressure to secure Paramjeet Singh’s release and stop the illegal extradition to India. We are grateful that the Minister of Justice in Portugal has rejected the case and false claims, evidence and pressure by the India Government, despite all its efforts to defame the Sikh community and Paramjeet.

Cllr Preet Kaur Gill who has been working tirelessly on this case and supporting Pinky Kaur and the family said “I am so ecstatic that Portugal delivers justice for Paramjeet Singh and his family. The Sikh community came together and have campaigned for human rights of not only Paramjeet Singh but for refugees who also face such atrocities. Victory to the cause and those that stand up for human rights. I am elated by the news”

This is very embarrassing and shameful for the Indian Authorities who played every card to have Paramjeet Singh extradited to India to face more falsified charges, especially following Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the UK in November 2015, where he delivered a fictitious intelligence dossier to the UK Gov on alleged activities of UK Gurdwara, TV Channels and community including named individuals such as Paramjeet Singh. The Sikh Federation (UK) have been challenging India and the UK Gov on this such dossier, while others who met with Modi have remained quiet. This case is a landmark statement that Justice and Freedom cannot be bought or sold by the corrupt India state as easily as it once was.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Congratulations to Bhai Paramjit Singh and his family and cannot thank enough to our legal team building up a case to free Bhai Ji.
    As for RSS agent who keeps saying “law abiding peceful country” are you living in cuckoo land? Where is the justice asking all minorities….? paap will never last truth will! Just answer all what is said by M Singh – you cannot can you ? which planet are you living on certainly not on earth with humans….

    If you cannot reply to exactly what Singh is saying why dont you just go away instead of mentioned 1980-1990 and Bhindrawale.. Even to this day if a Sikh mentions Bhindrawale’s name or tags his name on his T shirt etc., you RSS agenst so scared of this you have to arrest that person – what sort of monkeys are you?

  2. Sikhs have received battering from variety of people from Mughals to British to the Indians of 1947- 2016.

    The only answer to all of this historical wrong doings is.

    1) Resurrection of new Punjab’s all over the Universe not just in India or Earth.
    2) Having Space station Punjab which can be bought or built in any Punjab friendly country .

    Indian Punjab is most likely going to perish or wither away due to the Uranium and carcinogens in its water and by the drug mafias destroying its youth.

    • Indian Punjab is the Sikh Homeland historically, culturally and religiously; as such it cannot be replaced or forsaken by the Sikhs and is the reason why they fought so hard to keep it and can be expected to continue doing so. The Jews could not give up Israel even after centuries of occupation and genocidal persecution which saw most of them forced out of their homeland. We are no different.

      • I agree Indian Punjab is the homeland of Sikhs. We need to nuture it and keep it safe from all hostile forces as long as possible.

        How ever several forces trying to hurt it many and some of them are self inflicted

        1) The Uranium and other cancer causing substances in its water is a serious problem not much discussed.
        2) The indigenous drug mafia destroying the state youth for economic gains.
        3) Two terror attacks from Pakistan in Gurdaspur and Pathankoat are also adding to the woe.
        4) The Congress of 1980 1990 ordered the 3 rd 1984 Genocide of Sikh people and the OP- Blue star .

        As for Empire I told you it never goes away even if Roman ,British Empires have gone .

        Syria ,Iraq are living example of the fact that humans will always be ruled by Empires

        Short of having multiple Punjab’s all over the earth and universe we run the risk of being over run by some of these forces including the 4 billion year catastrophe of Earth getting burnt up by the swelling Sun.

      • The hostile forces threatening the SIkh homeland of the Punjab are those who deny that discrimination and persecution against Sikhs has been ongoing since 1947 – it is not just Indira Gandhi and her Congress Party as Hinduvta supporters actively backed and endorsed Indira’s campaign against Sikhs and have been involved in the 1984 genocides and protection of those who are guilty of massacres of Sikhs. Modi is not a member of Congress Party and he flies to the UK to give the British Government a dossier of Sikh activists, SIkh Gurdwaras and organisations he wants action taken against?! That is NOT right or acceptable. As for current problems facing Punjab these can be laid at the feet of your friend Badal. There was not drug traffiking problem in 1984, it has happened and spiralled out of control under Badal’s watch and suspicion has to be drawn to why that has been allowed to happen (and accusations against his supporters like Majithia). The cross border terror attacks are not an issue but rather a distraction as the Indian media uses them to immediately cast anti-national aspersions against Sikhs. Put all the Indian army’s Sikh regiments back into PUnjab and keep them there and you will instantly stop both cross border attacks and cross border drug traffiking – Badal and Central Govt won’t do it because they want to keep both fires smouldering.

      • We need to rebuild our Indian Punjab into a strong drug free ,debt free and future looking state.

        We need to also build multiple Punjabs all over earth and In Universe as we have lot of hostile forces trying to hurt us .
        In any case this Earth along with Punjab on it is doomed in 4 billion years due to death of Sun.

        We need to transform our selves into

        “SPACE FARING PEOPLE”

        We need to document our history well with in depth analysis of all events especially the 3 Genocides.

  3. 1980 -1990 Punjab main players were
    1) Indira and Bhinderwala
    2) Akali Dal and Congress.

    They both have caused irreperable damage to Punjab.
    We will need to now build new Punjabs all over the planet Earth and in Universe and take lesson’s from the botching up of 1980-1990 Indian Punjab.

    Justice will not be given as Bhinderwala boys indulged in illegal killings and state reacted with a heavy hand the Rebellion.

    Learn to make a peaceful ,stable ,just ,forward looking and inclusive society.

    • You keep drip feeding the poison mantra and never actually respond to either my answers or questions (Will India’s ‘Law makers/breakers’ send those two Punjabi Policeman back to Portugal to face justice and the allegations made against them of torturing Paramjit?) so I will just paraphrase what I have already said to you many times before for the sake of new readers who you might be trying to take in with your RSS propaganda. ‘You are looking at the wrong causality, Bhindranwale died in 1984 but the injustices against Sikhs started decades before that when promises and assurances given to Sikhs to join India (and reject the setting up of their own Sikh state) by Nehru and the Congress Party were reneged upon. The sharing of state capital (Chandigarh) between two states, the redistribution of river water( it is not sharing but theft when you don’t even seek let alone get the Punjab’s Sikhs permission (no referendum offered to them on this issue yet in 1966 the Hindus of Punjab got a referendum to abon their mother tongue and form another state out of Punjab’s territory) and against riparian conventions), the denial of a Sikh marriage act recognising the Anand Karaj (which effectively meant that Sikhs were being counted as Hindus), the rejection of Punjabi as the language of Punjab, the cleaving off of Punjab’s land to form another state territory with Haryana, etc – the grievances are well documented in the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions formulated in the sixties and seventies. The truth of what I am telling about communal causality is further demonstrated in the 1992 Bombay and 2002 anti Muslim ‘riots’ – these events would not have occurred had the apparent acceptibility of collective punishment of a religious minority been set in precedent with the anti Sikh pogroms of 1984. That communal intolerance to religious minorities is how India and Pakistan were born and it is an underlying problem that Hindus (as they form a majority in the Indian subcontinent and it is always incumbent on the ruling people whether they be white South African or Hindu Indian) have to be big enough to recognise and be magnanimous enough to resolve for the sake of the greater good. The integrity (not to mention honour and morality) of the Nation would be guaranteed by this carrot approach rather than the stick which always fails in the end and only leads to bloodshed and suffering of innocents. Everything was not fine and happy before 1980 – I have already told you time and again about growing Sikh grievances from 1947 when it became clearer and clearer that Nehru and the established Sarkar were reneging on promises made to SIkhs before Independece (to entice them to join India rather Pakistan or re-create their own sovereign SIkh State) that culminated in the demands of the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions. Instead of addressing those genuine grievances Sikhs were continually rebuffed – the 1966 seccession of Punkani Hindus abandoning both their mother tongue Punjabi and state Punjab for Hindi and the creation of Haryana with all the attendant subsequent issues surrounded unfair channelling of Punjab water without Sikh consent (who were the majority in an agrarian dependent Punjab) right up to the murder of Sikhs by Nirankari’s back by Indira Gandhi (did I mention she also instigated an illegal and draconian state of emergency in India from 1975 to 1977 in response to being found guilty of fraud by a court)
      The Nirankaris are a heretical sect which were first supported by the British in their divide and rule policy to try and neuter the Sikhs pre-independence. Indira Gandhi resurrected this policy for exactly the same nefarious reason during the 1970s as her Congress Party could not overhaul the Sikh political party at that time the Akali Dal through the ballot box. The Sikhs had been peacefully demanding their rights from Independence in 1947 as it became clearer that Nehru having wooed / bamboozled Master Tara ISngh and SIkh leadership into siding with India (instead of Pakistan or re-establishing their own sovereign Sikh state such as the Khalsa Raj of Maharajah Ranjit Singh which encompassed territory from Kashmir, Punjab (north of the Sutlej) and lands up to the Khyber) had no intention of honouring promises made. This lack of faith from Nehru led to the Anandpur Sahib Resolutions to address Sikh grievances over two decades before Bhindranwale even came on the scene although you are correct to note that the murders of innocent SIkhs by the state sponsored and protected Nirankaris led to Sikh backlash. You are incorrect however to continually raise spectre of Empire’s armies – the British Empire was and is dead and had no involvement whatsover in oppressing Sikhs in Punjab during the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. You persist in presenting Bhindranwale as a bogeyman when he was really a marginal figure (until Indira Gandhi made the catastrophic mistake you are making in thinking Sikhs can be puppeteered) who was made into a shaheed of the Sikh Quam by being martryed – if there really was a need to arrest him why was he arrested and then released beforehand and why not the Darbar Sahib surrounded by Sikh soldiers (who were in actuality largely confined to barracks) and its water and electricity cut off and the thousands of pilgrims visiting the Darbar Sahib that day allowed to leave? As a direct consequence of the illegal polices of the State towards SIkhs in the Punjab with kidnapping, false arrest, harassment of relatives, fake encounters, torture, rapes, extra judicial killings (just see what one of the men who did these things admits to – Gurmeet Pinky) compare what has happened to the Punjab from 1980 to present day. Back then Punjab was bread basket of India now it is on the verge of bankruptcy (whilst its BJP stooges the Badals have engorged and enriched themselves to the point where they are running out of Swiss banks to deposit their spoils from monopolies, patronage and alleged involvement in drug trafficking), its ground water is heavily polluted (not just by pesticides but by uranium when the PUnjab does not even possess a single nuclear power plant) which correlates with a proportional rise in both infant mortality, genetic abnormalities and disabilities in newborns, the State has the highest rate both of female infanticide and drug addiction in India (the latter is particularly galling when you consider the border with Pakistan is the most heavily defended) and to top it all Sikh scriptures are being torn in the streets of the Sikh homeland and when Sikhs protest they are in turn shot dead by police officers who are in turn absolved of any culpability. Not to mention the massive migration of Sikh youth out of the country. None of these things were happening in Punjab up to 1984. The fact that the State and PUnjab Government made Punjab into a police state is not excusable by saying that the human rights and civil rights abuses that then then subsequently ensued against the SIkhs was inevitable (as whenever governments create police states such abuses occur) as those politicians, those police officers, those army personnel, those judges et al were all fellow Indian citizens and should have treated Sikhs as their brothers. The sadistic and illegal treatment the SIkhs were subjected to (the legacy of which continues to this very day) is not excusable and those who engaged in it should be brought to book not because of the Geneva conventions (which apply to war combatants) but because of human rights violations and crimes against humanity. The wholesale pogrom against Sikhs has nothing to do with Bhindranwale (pretending to be a Sikh on this website you should at least try and make the effort to spell his name correct just once) and again you are trying to draw some justified correlation between the deaths of dozens of Hindus (no women or children amongst them) against the organised slaughter of thousands of SIkhs by criminals who were never punished but instead rewarded by police, judiciary and politicians even to this day. As for your contention that ‘Bhindranwale’s boys indulged in illegal killings tell me how many non SIkhs (and lets be honest as a RSS member you wouldn’t care if these were Christian or Muslims) were killed in PUnjab by Bhindranwale (and if were guilty why was he arrested, taken to a police station and then released without charge?) were burned to death with tyres about their necks, how many orphans thrown into fires to burn alive, how many women gang raped, how many homes and businesses torched with people inside them, how many scalped and stabbed as they were dragged off trains, how many were kidnapped in borad daylight, how many tortured and murdered and cremated by policemen and army men – the answer is zero so stop trying to draw some kind of equivalence as the two crimes are not comparable in scale. I think you and your RSS buddies should build Punjab elsewhere in universe and as India now has a space programme (at the expense of providing education and social welfare for the millions who die on the street every year) I would be willing to pay for your ticket to be on that rocket. The only people who have caused irreparable damage to Punjab are genocide apologists and those who seek to both refute and rewrite historical facts – that means you as a drunkard cannot address his alcoholism until he is ready to admit he has a drinking problem (this does not mean he blames it on the barman for serving him).

  4. Harvinder is Right Mr.M Singh, for he is also a law breaker , doesn’t see it from a Soliderity point of View.Blinded by Indian Bigotery , and Brain washed of his Humble Beginnings.
    Harvinder is Definitely on A political payroll , he should set him self free to be able to comment about Sikh affairs .
    All it takes is a few words to Sum him up……

  5. M Singh it changes nothing . Let him enjoy his new home in UK .
    If he wants to come to India he will need to be cleared by the court.
    India is a law abiding peaceful country and we shall book all Law breakers even if he is a fellow Sikh .

    • Parmajit has broken no law – he has NOT been convicted of ANY crime in ANY country of the world. The crime India accuses him of is one where all his co-defendants were acquitted and a crime that they were not able to substantiate with EVIDENCE to convince an impartial judicial court (even upon the second time of asking) to extradict Parmajit. IN fact the so called ‘evidence’ was historically so flimsy and suspect that the UK Government (which has been very ready to sacrifice Sikh civil rights for good relations with India) gave him asylum status so convinced were they that he would be tortured if returned to India – possibly by the same two Punjab ‘police officers’ despatched to collect him from Portugal! How can you not be incensed at such a catalogue of clear injustice and religious persecution?! In the words of the song ‘If you tolerate this, then your children will be next, your children will be next’.
      ‘India is a law abiding peaceful country and we shall book all Law breakers’ – except those who commit extrajudicial kidnappings, torture and murder (even those who want to confess such Gurmeet Pinky let alone those who do not – Sumedh Saini et al) and those who commit genocide (Kamal Nath, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler etc all free to live in their old home in India), eh Harinder? ‘India is a law abiding peaceful country and we shall book all Law breakers’ – in the land where up is down, black is white, right is wrong and good is evil we must remember Hitler’s favourite philosopher Nietzsche who stated ‘if you can get a people to believe in an absurdity you can then make them commit an atrocity’. I despair at your delusions and what such smug intolerance and prejudice is doing to my country in the name of so-called ‘nationalism’.

  6. I told you the British Empire never gave freedom to India in 1947 .
    Had this request come from USA then they would have sent him promptly .
    The Empire will always keep Nations servile to its interest.
    Small Victory for British Sikhs.
    But this man now cannot come back to his roots till he is cleared by Indian laws.
    Keep playing all these childish games we are off to building a SPACE STATION to explore the beautiful Universe far from law breakers like Mr Paramjeet

    • How is he a law breaker – he has NOT been found GUILTY of committing any crime in any court (if kangeroo Indian Court) yet?! You are just proving the adage that if you are a Sikh you are presumed guilty and have to prove your innocence in India. That is totally unacceptable and unconstitutional. Tell me will India’s Law makers (read Law breakers) be extradicting the two police officers who ran back to India on the charges of torture that the Portuguese had to put forward? They will at least be presumed innocent until proven guilty. And it is NOT small victory for British Sikhs you silly RSS dog it is a massive win for the entire Sikh kaum – every Sikh is proud what has been achieved bypassing so-called Sikh leaders like the SGPC and Akali Badal who have proven to be irrelevant to Sikh interests.

  7. Magnificent victory for the Sikhs but it should not have taken this long as the charge was unsustainable right from the beginning as Paramjit had been granted asylum status because it was found likely by the UK that he would be subjected to torture by the Indian Government if returned to India. The truth of this is underlined by the charges Portugal had to raise against two of the very policemen India despatched to collect Paramjit and who subsequently fled like whipped dogs back to India when the prospect of them being arrested was raised by the Portuguese. Is India now going to extradite these two ‘policemen’ back to Portugal or any EU country so that they can ‘clear’ their names? Not a chance they will want that can of worms opened and all their dirty dhotis exposed to the world. The fact that this entire matter has taken so long (nearly three months of detention including an extension of time being given to the Indian Government to present more ‘evidence’) when the basic evidence (that Paramjit could not be returned to India because of his asylum status in the UK) that has freed him was the very same presented on the day of his arrest and repeatedly throughout his detention tells me that either the Portuguese authority’s jurisprudence is hopelessly bureaucratic (delivering delayed justice) or the Portuguese authority thought they might be able to ‘help’ the Indian Government out by just sending Paramjit back to India on the quiet but were caught totally on the hop when Sikhs in such numbers (and using international political and NGO representation) raised the legality of abusing his human rights and created so much noise (and publicity) that it became impossible for them to extraordinary rendition Paramjit back to India. They must have explained this to the Indian authorities (who in turn must have been absolutely outraged that Sikhs could raise the spectre of human rights violation through lobbying UK and MPs etc) which would explain them bending over backwards in extending Paramjit’s illegal detention in order for the Indian State to come up with exceptional evidence which might have given them a legal technicality as an out to send Paramjit to India. They must have been shocked when India could not provide such evidence (even on the second time of asking) and embarrassed at the Indian ineptitude of sending two of the policemen accused of torturing Paramjit in the first place to Portugal to take him into custody! It is a complete vindication of the Sikh suspicion that Sikhs are needlessly being persecuted by the Indian State just for being Sikhs and it is clear the intention of going after Paramjit was to instil fear in the Sikh population. What they have managed instead is to harass one Sikh and rouse the ire and moral indignation of the entire Sikh nation to rally around their co-religionist and prove to the Sikhs that contrary to RSS Harinder’s constant refrain on this website that ‘the little man can do nothing but submit to the bigger bully’ that the exact opposite is true when Sikhs unite to fight injustice. Lessons to be learned here in respect to the SGPC and Akali Dal. Badal and Modi have only succeeded in handing a massive victory to the Sikh nation whilst at the same time pulling their pants down for the whole world to see how undignified and corrupted political governance / jurisprudence is in India when it comes to the treatment of Sikhs.

  8. First of all let us thanks “WAHE GURU JI “[ GOD ] for giving courage to Mr. Francisca Van Dunen of a small country like Portugal to stand up againts the Big and Mighty country like INDIA to reject the
    Extradition Request and there by giving some hope for HUMAN RIGHTS and Justice in the world.

    Wish Paramjit Singh a safe and quick return to UK as a Freeman to be united with his family.

    Congratulation to the Minister of Justice in Portugal. EU should be proud of you and your system.

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