India’s Ministry of External Affairs firmly rejected a report by a UK parliamentary select committee that placed India among 12 countries, including Russia, China and Iran, accused of carrying out what it described as “transnational repression” against individuals in the UK, calling the report “baseless” and drawn from “dubious sources”.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that the allegations came “predominantly” from “proscribed entities and individuals with a clear documented history of anti-India hostility”, and added that “the use of discredited sources at will undermines the credibility of the report itself”.

The report titled Transnational Repression in the UK was released on Wednesday by the Joint Human Rights Committee, which includes Members of Parliament and members of the House of Lords who study human rights issues in the UK, and also includes Indian-origin peer Lord Dholakia.

The report stated, “Our investigation received allegations of evidence that numerous states had carried out TNR (transnational repression) operations on UK territory. Several evidence submissions accused Bahrain, China, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE of committing TNR in the UK.”

It described China, Russia and Iran as the “three most egregious TNR perpetrators in UK”, and published the written submissions received by the committee, including those related to India by Sikhs for Justice, Dhal Khalsa UK, Sikh Federation UK and the Sikh Press Association.

The report also noted that the number of state-threat investigations handled by MI5 had risen by 48 per cent over the past year, and recommended measures to the UK government such as imposing sanctions on those responsible, expelling diplomats, and factoring in TNR concerns while entering into international trade deals.

Former UK security minister Tom Tugendhat told TOI, “This report says nothing against India. It simply reports that evidence was provided by a group that has been traditionally adverse to India. As security minister, this discussion on TNR was not one I ever had to have, either with India high commission, or our Indian government friends, or Indian agencies that we worked very closely with for the security of all of our people.”