Windows smashed at consulates in London, SF
Windows at India's High Commission in London and at the Consulate General of India in San Francisco were smashed during separate demonstrations by Sikh protesters, police in both cities said Monday.
London's Metropolitan Police force said a man was arrested Sunday afternoon on suspicion of violent disorder outside the diplomatic mission, where two security guards were slightly injured. In San Francisco, dozens of protesters gathered outside the consulate and smashed windows with their flagpoles after a skirmish with embassy workers, a protester said.
San Francisco Police Officer Robert Rueca said in an email that embassy workers were injured, though he didn't say how many or the extent of the injuries. Suspects fled and have not been arrested, he said.
The U.S. State Department was working with local
authorities to investigate the incident and repair the damage.
“We certainly condemn that vandalism,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday during a briefing.
The protesters were affiliated with a Sikh separatist movement that seeks to create a new homeland or breakaway state, called “Khalistan.”
The incidents came a day after police in India's Punjab
state launched a manhunt to capture Amritpal Singh, a separatist leader who supports the Khalistan movement. His supporters staged protests in the majority Sikh state over the weekend and 112 were arrested, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
In San Francisco, police officers arrived at the Consulate General on Sunday afternoon to find shattered glass windows. Workers described protesters trying to enter the building, Rueca said. He didn't immediately provide additional details on how the confrontation began.
On Monday morning, more than a dozen protesters were again outside the building, which was protected behind police barricades and a police vehicle in front.
Gurpreet Singh of Fresno, California, was outside the embassy both days and said protesters planned to keep up their demands for a separate Sikh state. Singh said he arrived too late to see what happened Sunday afternoon but was told embassy workers took down the Khalistan flags protesters had put up near the entrance.
A worker then pushed a protester, cursed him and said “don't put your dirty flag here,” said Veer Singh, another protester who saw the confrontation. That led protesters to begin using their flagpoles to smash in the windows, Gurpreet Singh said.
Rueca, of the police department, said protesters were blocked from entering the building.