Gang jailed for attack on retired army general

The group – including a man from Wolverhampton and another from Great Barr – ambushed the 78-year-old when he was on holiday in London.

Their mission was planned as revenge on Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar for leading a controversial military raid back in India in 1984.

Incredibly General Brar – an army veteran of 40 years – survived the vicious attack.

And now his four attackers have been jailed for a total of almost 50 years.

Wolverhampton man Barjinder Singh Sangha, aged 33 of Barcroft Road, Blakenhall, and Mandeep Singh Sandhu, 34 of Green Lane in Great Barr, were each sentenced to 14 years in prison for their part in the assault.

A fifth member of the group remains at large, Southwark Crown Court was told.

The court heard gory details of the attack, including how Sangha sliced General Brar's throat and stabbed him in the jaw as the others held him down.

The assault had started when Harjit Kaur followed Mr Brar and his wife as they enjoyed a night out in London's West End, relaying their movements to her boyfriend, Dilbag Singh.

They followed them to the Mostyn Hotel in Marble Arch where Sangha grabbed Mrs Brar by the throat and hurled her against the wall, before turning his attention to General Brar when he tried to intervene.

All four defendants worshipped at the Central Gurdwara London in Shepherds Bush, which was used as a 'base and meeting point' to plan the stabbing, the court was told.

During their sentencing yesterday the quartet waved to a packed public gallery of family and supporters, raising their hands in prayer and smiling broadly.

Up to 50 fellow Sikhs, including women and children, gathered in corridors outside the court while supporters mounted a protest outside, with some chanting 'Indian Government terrorists'.

Jailing the four, Judge Jeffrey Pegden said had General Brar not fought back when he was being attacked, he may have suffered even worse injuries.

He added: "You three men were the attackers and you, Harjit Kaur, enabled that ambush – because that is what it was – to take place swiftly and effectively.

"I am of the view that the attackers wanted to inflict more serious harm, but that General Kuldip Brar fought back, preventing that happening."

General Brar's 1984 military operation was designed to flush out Sikh separatists from a holy shrine in Punjab.

The raid, codenamed Operation Blue Star, resulted in bloody carnage killing more than 500 civilians.

In the aftermath General Brar told how he had been subjected to 'unlimited threats' and branded 'the number one enemy of the Sikhs', leaving him needing maximum security.

The Indian Prime Minister, Indira Ghandi, and General Arun Vaidya, Chief of the Indian Army, were among a number of high profile figures assassinated after being held responsible for the raid by extremists.

Prosecutor Miss Annabel Darlow said at yesterday's sentencing: "This was no random attack – this was a highly premeditated assault by people who thought about what they were doing and planned it."

One of the men dropped their mobile phone as they fled the scene, providing police with vital clues that led to the gang's eventual arrest. Mr Gulam Ahmed, defending Sangha, said he was planning on a peaceful protest but a 'lingering sense of despair' over the 1984 raid led him to commit the attack.

And Mr Martin McCarthy, representing Sandu, added: "He was not the man who wielded the knife.

"I would submit this was an isolated incident."

The court also heard that Singh had lost both his father and brother in the temple raid.

Sangha and Sandhu were convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after a trial.

Kaur, 39 and of Berwick Avenue in Hayes, London, was given a lesser sentence of 11 years as she had not physically taken part in the attack. Singh, 37 and of Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, London, pleaded guilty to the same offence and was imprisoned for 10 and a half years.