Britain’s Sikh community has rejected calls to strip them of the rights to carry a ceremonial knife – known as the kirpan – as outrage snowballs over the murder of an 18-year-old student by a Sikh man.
Vickrum Singh Digwa, 23, was handed a life sentence by a judge on Tuesday for stabbing to death Henry Nowak, an accountancy student, in Southampton in December 2025.
The murder case has reopened a debate over race, religion and identity in the UK.
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Far-right figureheads, populist political leaders and even tech billionaire Elon Musk have joined a chorus alleging “two-tier” policing exists to protect ethnic minorities at the expense of the UK’s white majority population and called for the public wearing of the kirpan to be banned, in a country where carrying a weapon is illegal.
Body camera footage released by police after Nowak’s stabbing shows him being handcuffed by officers despite telling them he has been stabbed and saying “I can’t breathe’’.
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In the footage, Digwa claims to the officers that he is a victim of a racial attack, and Nowak has ripped off his turban.