However, the Sikh Federation (UK) has disputed that characterization, saying the blade used by Digwa was not a kirpan.
Some prominent right-wing figures, including Restore Britain party leader Rupert Lowe and Reform UK spokesperson Zia Yusuf, have called for the right to carry a kirpan in public to be repealed.
Labour lawmaker Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, who is Sikh, has accused those political parties of deciding to “politicize people’s pain, attacking the Sikh community for wearing the kirpan and wanting it banned, even though the kirpan was not used.”
Jas Singh, an adviser to the Sikh Federation, tells TIME there is “a collective feeling of grief, worry, genuine concern and fear” among the Sikh community following the fallout from Nowak’s murder.
The comments being made by right-wing figures are “highly irresponsible and dangerous,” he says.
Singh tells TIME that since Digwa’s arrest in December, he has heard from dozens in the Sikh community who have been targeted with violence and harassment because of their faith.