Extremists target Punjabi restaurant in London, British Indians call for action

Following the recent attack on the High Commission of India in London, a group of Khalistani extremists also targeted one of London’s Punjabi restaurants – Rangrez – and its proprieters. iGlobal spoke to the co-owner of the restaurant to find out more.

“They started coming inside [the restaurant] and when we locked the door, they continued standing outside and were asking Harman [co-owner] to come out. They threatened him and his family. It has been a very stressful time for everyone, especially Harman,” said the British Indian co-owner, who wishes to remain anonymous.

The incident took place at dinner time on March 22 while customers dined in the restaurant.

“Since then police have been contacted twice but they have not been very responsive. They didn’t come immediately or even later in the evening. Their response has been more like ‘nothing has actually happened yet, right?’ which is extremely disappointing,” the restaurateur said.

Rangrez, which has two branches in London, is geared up to open for customers each evening as usual, but there is concern that there continues to be a lack of security to ensure safety of the staff as well as the customers.

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“If they can climb up the High Commission building to bring the flag down, then we don’t know what else they can do,” the spokesperson said.

This incident, however, did not occur in isolation. The restaurateur explained that the targeted harassment against Rangrez – which has won many awards and accolades, including London Curry Awards 2019 – has been ongoing for many days in multiple ways.

“There have been so many fake comments on social media and fake reviews on sites like Trip Advisor and Google. One night, there were suddenly fifty to sixty fake bad reviews, which has obviously affected our rating on Google for no good reason.

“There have also been fake bookings where people have called to book a table and never showed up. This is really affecting our business.”

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Harassment via comments and posts on Rangrez’s social media platforms continues with several posts mocking and making light of the situation.

Diaspora organisations such as REACH (UK) Chapter and Insight UK have called on the Metropolitan Police to take cognisance of the incident via their social media platforms.