LONDON: Five British doctors and academics who are experts in blood cancer have said that acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), the sudden illness that Sikh separatist leader Avtar Singh Khanda died of aged 35, can be aggressive and it would not be possible to trigger the illness through poisoning.
Charles Craddock, academic director of the centre for clinical haematology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, told a BBC Sounds podcast on Khanda’s death that AML was one of the most common blood cancers in adults and one of the most challenging to treat.
Craddock told the podcast, “Death, Suspicion and the Sikh Diaspora”, that the same result could not be achieved via poisoning. “We can be very confident of a disease caused by abnormalities in the bone marrow with characteristic features which, all put together, give an internationally recognised classification of AML,” he said.
He said patients could quickly deteriorate and develop fatal complications within hours or days, as Khanda did, who died on June 15, 2023 at Birmingham City Hospital.
Four other doctors and academics told the podcast that AML could not be triggered through poisoning and can be very aggressive.
However, Dabinderjit Singh, principal adviser of the Sikh Federation (UK),told TOI that Michael Polak, the barrister for Avtar’s family “has access not only to theories that contradict this, but to independent reports from pathologists.”
Khanda was a close friend of Amritpal Singh and a leading Khalistan activist in the UK. His death certificate states AML and pulmonary embolism as the causes of death.
His family and friends allege he was poisoned by the Indian govt and the UK covered it up.
The podcast also features one of several British Sikh men who were given Osman (threat to life) notices by the UK police. The man told BBC Sounds he believes he was given the notice because he was being targeted by Sikh extremists in the UK, and not by India.
The man said: “I am 70% certain this threat has come from the Sikh extremists we had a run-in with. They are pushing this particular narrative that it is all very much India, India, India, but the one thing with our community is that maybe there is an issue amongst us.”
Charles Craddock, academic director of the centre for clinical haematology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, told a BBC Sounds podcast on Khanda’s death that AML was one of the most common blood cancers in adults and one of the most challenging to treat.
Craddock told the podcast, “Death, Suspicion and the Sikh Diaspora”, that the same result could not be achieved via poisoning. “We can be very confident of a disease caused by abnormalities in the bone marrow with characteristic features which, all put together, give an internationally recognised classification of AML,” he said.
He said patients could quickly deteriorate and develop fatal complications within hours or days, as Khanda did, who died on June 15, 2023 at Birmingham City Hospital.
Four other doctors and academics told the podcast that AML could not be triggered through poisoning and can be very aggressive.
However, Dabinderjit Singh, principal adviser of the Sikh Federation (UK),told TOI that Michael Polak, the barrister for Avtar’s family “has access not only to theories that contradict this, but to independent reports from pathologists.”
Khanda was a close friend of Amritpal Singh and a leading Khalistan activist in the UK. His death certificate states AML and pulmonary embolism as the causes of death.
His family and friends allege he was poisoned by the Indian govt and the UK covered it up.
The podcast also features one of several British Sikh men who were given Osman (threat to life) notices by the UK police. The man told BBC Sounds he believes he was given the notice because he was being targeted by Sikh extremists in the UK, and not by India.
The man said: “I am 70% certain this threat has come from the Sikh extremists we had a run-in with. They are pushing this particular narrative that it is all very much India, India, India, but the one thing with our community is that maybe there is an issue amongst us.”