SIKH campaigners have called on the Foreign Secretary to use his first trip to India next week to push for the release of detained British citizen Jagtar Singh Johal.

Mr Johal, from Scotland, was in Punjab in northern India for his wedding in 2017 when his family said he was arrested and bundled into an unmarked car.

He is said to have been tortured, including with electric shocks, and faces the death penalty as a result of his campaigning for Sikh rights.

The Sikh Federation UK’s Dabinderjit Singh said that his action group has been rallying officials in the newly appointed Labour government and staff within the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office to push for Mr Johal’s return to Britain ahead of David Lammy’s visit.

“The visit represents an opportunity to push for Jagtar’s release and return,” Mr Singh said.

In 2022 then-opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer urged then-prime minister Boris Johnson to request Mr Johal’s release.

Mr Singh said the Sikh Federation UK has written to Mr Lammy to express that the “British Sikh community expect better from a Labour government given the commitments Keir Starmer has given to Jagtar’s family and public statements while in opposition.”