LONDON: The UK’s counter-terrorism police may have produced the controversial “police intelligence report” claiming that Hindu extremists are aligning with Europe’s far right, it has emerged.
The Mail on Sunday had published an article at the weekend claiming it had seen a secret report “compiled by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC)” which said British Hindu extremists were forming alliances with far-right groups in Europe over their “common hatred of Muslims” and that some had met far-right activist Tommy Robinson. The report also claimed the Bollywood film “Emergency” contained “Hindutva ideology” and all this was sparking communalclashes in Britain. When TOI approached the NPCC, their spokesperson said: “You would need to contact counter-terrorism policing as this is not an NPCC report.”
A spokesperson for counter-terrorism policing told TOI: “We do not comment on what may or may not be leaked documents.”
Tory MP Bob Blackman raised the Mail article in the House of Commons on Monday, demanding the secret report be published so it can be scrutinised and to “make sure the blame is put where it should be”. He pointed out that during the Leicester unrest “105 Hindu homes were attacked, but no Muslim homes, and two Hindu temples were attacked, but no mosques.”
Charlotte Littlewood, who wrote the first report on the Leicester unrest, which found “no evidence of any Hindutva extremism”, said: “Not a single Hindu who marched in Leicester has ever had relations with Robinson.”
The Mail article includes a video of a mob of Muslim men in balaclavas descending on the Durga Bhawan Hindu Centre in Smethwick in 2022, where they attack it with bottles, missiles and fireworks, and another video of a masked man threatening “BJP and RSS Hindutva supporters”, saying they are not welcome “in the UK”. That is despite the fact the article is meant to be about Hindu extremists.
Vinod Popat, convenor of Hindu Community Organisations Group Leicester, has written to the NPCC calling for the report to be made public, saying the allegations risk damaging community relations. He also said he took exception to the “repeated misuse and mischaracterisation of Hindutva”.
