New Delhi: Gurpreet Singh Rehal, a businessman in the United Kingdom has been sanctioned by London for alleged links to terrorist organisations operating in India, such as Babbar Khalsa and Babbar Akali Lehar.
“HM Treasury assesses Rehal is involved in Babbar Khalsa and Babbar Akali Lehar’s terrorist activities, including promoting and encouraging, carrying out recruitment activities for, providing financial services to as well as supporting and assisting those organisations, including through purchasing weapons and other military materiel,” the UK Treasury said in a statement Thursday.
The statement added: “HM Treasury also assesses that Babbar Akali Lehar is associated with, and involved in, Babbar Khalsa’s terrorist activities by promoting and encouraging and carrying out recruitment activities for the group and itself.”
Rehal, a 34-year old British national who lives in London, is the director of a number of organisations in the UK including Saving Punjab CIC, Whitehawk Consultations Ltd and the unincorporated organisation Loha Designs.
“This is the first use of the Domestic Counter-Terrorism Regime to disrupt funding for Pro-Khalistan militant group Babbar Khalsa,” the UK Treasury said.
The British businessperson was most recently in the news for being a part of a consortium named Panjab Warriors which took over the football club Morecambe F.C. in the UK earlier this summer. Morecambe is a club currently in the National League in the UK. The club, in a statement Thursday, claimed that Rehal held a “consultancy role in marketing and communications” and is “no longer affiliated with” either Morecambe F.C. or Panjab Warriors.
“Following recent serious concerns that have come to light, we took immediate and decisive action, and his association with both organisations has been fully removed,” added the statement.
The takeover of Morecambe F.C. was discussed in the British House of Commons, according to media reports. Rehal was the public face of the takeover. Last week he is reported to have collected an award in the British Parliament from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs, according to the UK newspaper The Guardian. The British football club appointed its first ever Sikh manager following the takeover in September 2025.
The move by the UK Treasury ensures the freezing of all of Rehal’s assets and prohibits British entities from dealing with any firm owned by the UK national or associated groups such as Babbar Akali Lehar.
“We will not stand by while terrorists exploit Britain’s financial system. This landmark action shows we are prepared to use every tool at our disposal to choke off funding for terrorism —wherever it occurs and whoever is responsible. The UK stands firmly with peaceful communities against those who promote violence and hatred,” Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said in a statement Thursday.
Panjab Warriors is a consortium of Sikh businesspersons who have pooled together their investments to put money into Morecambe F.C. The principal shareholder of the group is Kuljeet Singh Momi, according to media reports.
The Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and other banned terror outfits such as Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) have been involved recently in funding attacks on police stations in Punjab late last year. Between December 2024 and March 2025 over a dozen youth from the border areas of Punjab were arrested for such attacks, as reported by ThePrint.
India has long pointed out that Sikh separatists have been given space to operate in third countries such as the UK and Canada. Earlier this year, a Sikh separatist broke through External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s security cordon outside Chatham House during the Indian official’s visit to the UK. The incident was raised by the Ministry of External Affairs with their British counterparts.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)