Dear readers — good morning. On 11 June 2023, a Sikh activist was admitted to Sandwell’s City Hospital suffering from the sudden onset of an aggressive blood cancer. Four days later, he was dead. While police have said there is no reason to believe Avtar Singh Khanda’s death is suspicious, his friends and family maintain he was a target of a campaign of transnational repression by the Indian government, who deny the allegations. A new development in the fight for an inquest is today’s Big Story.
As well as that, we have a round up of Black Sabbath’s epic Saturday night gig at Villa Park. Plus, peek into the warring WhatsApp group of leftwingers who are angry with MP Zarah Sultana for prematurely firing the starting pistol on a new political party. Finally, have we stumbled on Birmingham’s filthiest park? Judge for yourself, below.
Catch up and coming up:
- On Saturday, we entered city centre apartment blocks to answer a question from curious Dispatch readers: who actually lives in town? Dan Cave found out.
- In our Thursday exclusive, Daniel Timms analysed the latest economic data on the West Midlands which shows we are lagging behind Manchester in the race for regeneration. One key reason why? You guessed it — our poor transport system.
- On that note, we’re keen to hear from you about your experiences on the region’s trains, trams and buses. Horror stories and positive encounters alike — we want to know the good, the bad and the ugly. Let us know at editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
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Photo of the week
Local photographer Diji Aderogba caught this summer-in-the-city moment at Pigeon Park on Fuji film x100v during last week’s heatwave. “Sometimes, being at the park and observing people going about their day can bring a deep sense of peace,” he posted on Instagram.
Big Story: Did the Indian government poison a local activist?
Top line: A pathologist has said the possibility that sikh activist Avtar Singh Khanda was poisoned cannot be ruled out after a fresh analysis of records related to his death.
Context: Khanda, 35, was a prominent figure in the UK Khalistan movement which advocates for a Sikh homeland in the northwestern Indian province of Punjab. He died in City Hospital on 15 June 2023 four days after being admitted with the blood cancer acute myeloid leukaemia. His family and friends have maintained ever since that his death was suspicious.
Why do they suspect foul play? The Indian government, led by Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been accused of participating in a transnational campaign of repression against Sikh separatists, which they deny.
- On 18 June 2023, Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a temple in British Columbia. Three months later, Canada’s then-prime minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being involved in his killing.
- In December 2023, the US government announced it had foiled an alleged plot by an Indian official to murder a Sikh activist and American citizen in New York.
That’s not all: Khanda’s friend Jaswinder Singh, an adviser to Sikh Federation UK, said that in the weeks leading up to his death, Khanda feared he was being followed. Michael Polak, a barrister acting for Khanda’s family, has previously said Khanda became “enemy no.1” in Indian press reports after being investigated by Indian intelligence services following a March 2023 protest in front of the Indian high commission in London.
UK police have said there is no reason to treat Khanda’s death as suspicious but the Guardian has reported Singh’s claims that, in a 2024 meeting, West Midlands Police confirmed their investigation did not include “reviewing (Khanda’s) phones, laptop, talking to his friends, co-workers, searching his home address (or) considering information about attacks on Sikh activists around the world”.
A fresh perspective: As reported by the Guardian, pathologist Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl, who was provided with Khanda’s death certificate, hospital notes, and a toxicology report, has concluded that the result of the postmortem exam “does not mean that a poisoning can be completely excluded.”
How do we know this? His findings were included in a recent letter from Polak to West Midlands coroner Louise Hunt, which was seen by Guardian reporters. Fegan-Earl noted that while toxicological analysis carried out in the hospital was not at fault, the “limitations of such analysis must be borne in mind” and that some toxins — especially rarer ones — require specialist testing to detect.
What are his credentials? Fegan-Earl said he has been involved with several cases which required the use of multiple experts “above and beyond” the normal expertise of toxicologists, including two cases which involved potential poisoning by foreign powers. He added, “there are some poisons that can only be identified if they are suspected.”
Bottom line: While the authorities have not provided any updates, Khanda’s friends and family are continuing to call for an inquest into his death, something which Louise Hunt has previously refused. They are urging her to change her mind and hope this new pathology report will persuade her.
Brum in brief
😷 Residents living near Moilliet Street Park in North Edgbaston are fed up with the filth filling up this community green space. The approximately 400 ft², rectangular park sits just off Dudley Road near the Smethwick neighbourhood of Cape Hill and is bordered on three sides by businesses and on one side by a long road of houses. When The Dispatch visited one weekday afternoon during last week’s heatwave, it was drowning in litter and the stench of rotting food and animal waste was overwhelming. Alongside flytipped white goods were strewn clothes from torn charity bags and discarded, dirty underwear as well as drug paraphernalia and piles of empty alcohol cans and bottles, some of which had been smashed on a bench next to the children’s play area. Mattresses and abandoned furniture were being used by three people who appeared to be heavily under the influence of drugs. As we walked by, one lit up a pipe. 56-year-old Narinder Kumar, who lives adjacent to the park, said that families avoid coming here because it doesn’t feel safe. “It breaks my heart to see it like this,” he added.
Kumar says the problem predates the current bin strikes and has steadily grown worse since about 2011. He and a group of residents have organised regular clean ups of Winson Street, along the park’s east side, but the rubbish quickly fills up again. Following the recent death of an elderly neighbour, they came together to tidy the road ahead of her funeral, only for the waste to reappear within two days. The deceased woman’s nephew, 65-year-old Gurbaksish Dhaliwal, lives in Hounslow but continues to travel to the area to arrange her affairs. He told the Dispatch, “we moan about rubbish in London but it’s nothing compared to here.” In a letter sent on 25 June by North Edgbaston councillor Marcus Bernasconi to the cabinet member for the environment Majid Mahmood, seen by the Dispatch, he said the park is “nothing short of disgusting,” and urged Mahmood to have the mess cleared. He also asked him to ensure all local businesses have waste contracts and that the tenanted properties are correctly licensed and equipped with waste facilities. The Dispatch approached Birmingham City Council but received no reply.
🦇 40,000 fans from all over the world descended on Birmingham at the weekend to see Black Sabbath’s original line up — Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler — perform for the very last time. At the Back to the Beginning event at Villa Park, rock and heavy metal greats like Metallica and Guns n Roses rubbed up against fresh meat Yungblood as they supported the four brummies bowing out after 57 years. By all accounts, they didn’t disappoint. BirminghamLive captured the freely flowing tears of fully grown men — metalheads no less — while the night received rave reviews in the Independent, Guardian, Telegraph and Kerrang. The farewell gig has reportedly boosted the local economy by £20m and all proceeds will be split between the charities Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Acorn’s children’s hospice and Cure Parkinson’s, reports the BBC.
Since Saturday, the Osbourne family have continued to make the news — especially the women. Music biz matriarch and wife of Ozzy, Sharon, has announced she is retiring while their daughter Kelly has revealed she got engaged backstage at the gig. On Instagram, she shared a video of her partner, Slipknot DJ Sid Wilson, popping the question in front of her parents. “F*** off, you're not marrying my daughter," Ozzy can be heard saying.
The show appears to have gone off without a hitch, but some onlookers have expressed frustration that the city hasn’t seized the opportunity enough. One fan, using the name @arediworld, posted photos of herself outside the Crown Pub — where Black Sabbath played their first gigs, but which is now closed — to X in celebration. But in another post, she said “there’s been hardly any hometown HYPE” adding that “we should shut down the city” because “this is huge for Birmingham”. Local resident @jordanBHX highlighted that, despite efforts which The Dispatch has reported on, the Crown pub is still shuttered. He wrote “Nothing sums up the poverty of civic leadership in the city like a crowd of people photographing a derelict pub that campaigners have spent years trying to reopen.”
Quick Hits:
🧑🏫 King Edward VI High School for Girls has been named 2025’s best value private school by the Telegraph due to its stellar facilities which include an indoor swimming pool and seven tennis courts. Facing Labour’s VAT and national insurance hikes, this year the school will raise its fees by 20% and increase its intake from 96 girls to 120. Principal Kirsty von Malaisé said that to be the “only country in Europe” to tax education was “wholly regressive” and “clearly a socialist agenda to the detriment of pupils”.
🚨 A woman’s body was found in Handsworth park on Wednesday by a member of the public. BirminghamLive reports that the police are not treating her death as suspicious.
🚧 600 new homes could be built in a village currently inhabited by 3,000 people, according to the BBC. Barratt David Wilson Homes Mercia has applied to Solihull Council for outline permission to develop an area at Hawkshurst Moor Farm in Berkswell, on the boundary with Coventry.
Media picks
📈 The Economist has covered the “quiet education revolution in England’s second cities,” finding that poor pupils in Birmingham are performing better in English and Maths and catching up with results in the capital, which have historically been ahead. In 2014, University of Bristol economist Simon Burgess showed that the success of secondary-school pupils in London could be explained by the fact that so many were from ethnic-minority groups — typically, the children and grandchildren of immigrants are more motivated to succeed. As the difference between the censuses of 2011 and 2021 shows, the share of foreign-born people in Birmingham (and Manchester) grew faster than in London. That helps because “almost every group does better at school than poor white Britons”.
📱 The Times has revealed leaked WhatsApp messages which show disagreement among the left factions behind plans to launch a new socialist political party. Late last week Zarah Sultana, the 31-year-old Brummie MP for Coventry South, caused a storm when she took to social media to reveal she was leaving Labour to lead the new party with Jeremy Corbyn. However, Corbyn himself seemed nonplussed by the news, sharing his own less committal statement a day later, to say discussions were still ongoing. According to Gabriel Pogrund’s report, behind the scenes the usually mild-mannered former Labour leader was “furious” and had implored Sultana to delete her post, to no avail.
Our to do list
📖 The bestselling author and the man responsible for making you weep during Netflix’s hit One Day, David Nicholls will appear at the Glee Club on Wednesday. He’ll be discussing his latest novel, You Are Here.
🎶 It’s that time of year again. Mostly Jazz and Blues kicks off on Friday and while weekend and Sunday tickets are sold out, there are a few left for the other two days. Get them while you can.
🧶 Learn the art of collective Eastern European weaving in Erdington on Saturday for free, with Polish artist Magdalena Jasiak. You don’t need experience, just a curious attitude.
🚣♀️ Learn all about the waterways that flow through Birmingham and uncover rich local history at the Tame Valley Canal Lock open day on Saturday. Did you know we have more canals than Venice? Probably.
🎷 Finally, the Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival returns next week with performances, film screenings and workshops — almost all of which are absolutely free. Help the event to keep going by supporting their fundraiser.
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