The UK Home Secretary and MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Shabana Mahmood, has condemned the public response to the police in the wake of the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak.
Speaking in the House of Commons, the Home Secretary particularly condemned threats directed at police officers connected to the case.
The 18-year-old student was handcuffed and arrested by police after he was stabbed by Vickrum Digwa with a religious blade known as a Kirpan. He died shortly after the arrest.
“Threats against police officers are utterly unacceptable. There can be no justification for intimidation, abuse or attempts to take the law into one’s own hands,” Mahmood said.
She revealed that people online had wrongly identified an officer who had no connection to the case and subjected him to death threats. As a result, he had to move from his home to protect both himself and his family.
Mahmood warned that false information and inflammatory comments were worsening an already distressing situation.
“We must all together condemn it, and we must also allow the facts to be established to the appropriate investigations and the courts, and we must do so calmly and responsibly,” she said.
The Home Secretary also criticised Vickrum Digwa for using a religious blade, which he was legally permitted to carry, in the attack on Henry Nowak.
She noted that some people had called for restrictions on the Sikh community’s right to carry the Kirpan, a ceremonial knife that forms one of the five articles of faith in Sikhism.
Mahmood made clear that the legal protection allowing Sikhs to carry the Kirpan remains in place and that the government has no plans to change it.
However, she stressed the distinction between carrying the knife for religious purposes and using it to commit violence.
“Let me be clear: carrying a knife for the purpose of religious observance is one thing, using it, as so tragically occurred in this case, is quite another,” she said.
“It is a vile act, a crime of the utmost severity, and it will be met with the severest punishment.”
