Wednesday 28 March 2012

Balwant Singh Rajoana Planned Execution: Birmingham Protest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-17537873


About 1,000 people have protested in Birmingham against an execution scheduled to take place in India on Saturday.

Balwant Singh Rajoana is due to be hanged for his part in the 1995 murder of India's Chief Minister Beant Singh.

If carried out, the execution would be the first in the country since 2004.

The Birmingham protest, organised by the Sikh community, saw 200 people march from Handsworth to the Indian Consulate in the Jewellery Quarter.

On Tuesday, a court in Chandigarh set a date for Rajoana's execution, prompting widespread protests across the Sikh world.

Rajoana, who was sentenced in 2007, unlike other conspirators, has not appealed against the original court decision.

He was convicted of acting as a back-up suicide bomber in the assassination of Beant Singh, who was murdered by Dilawar Singh on 31 August 1995.