The murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton has sparked calls to ban the kirpan, a ceremonial dagger worn by Sikhs, but the weapon used was not a kirpan. Vickrum Digwa, 23, was sentenced to life for stabbing Nowak five times with a 21cm blade, while his kirpan remained unused.
Politicians including Robert Jenrick and Reform UK's Zia Yusuf have pledged to repeal the legal exemption allowing Sikhs to carry kirpans in public. Jenrick told LBC: 'Do I think that there is a role on the streets of our country for daggers and swords? No, I don’t.'
However, since the exemption was established under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act and reinforced by the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, there has been no recorded incident of a kirpan being used in a killing or attack. Modern kirpans are typically blunt blades of around 8cm, worn as a religious symbol.
The author, a Sikh, notes that the kirpan in their home is completely blunt and harmless. They argue that banning the kirpan based on misinformation would be a 'terrible injustice' and that the focus should remain on the actual murder weapon, not religious symbols.
