Indian military chief who raided Sikh fighters stabbed

The Indian military chief who led the contentious 1984 operation against Sikh fighters in the Golden Temple in Amritsar has been stabbed in a London street, the Indian embassy said.

Retired lieutenant general Kuldip Singh Brar, 78, was attacked by four people late on Sunday during a private visit to the British capital, said a spokeswoman for the Indian high commission in London the next day.

An ambulance was sent to the scene and Brar was taken to hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. Police are investigating the case.

Brar commanded Operation Blue Star, ordered by then prime minister Indira Gandhi to flush out militants holed up in Sikhdom's holiest shrine demanding an independent Sikh homeland.

"He was attacked by four people at 10.40pm in central London. The identity of the four people is not known. We have no information about the culprits yet," the high commission spokeswoman said.

"We were informed by the British police.

"He was coming out from after dinner. We were told by his wife - both of them were there - that there were four people. She was not harmed. He was stabbed. He was on a private visit."

A spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said they were called at 11.20 pm on Sunday to reports of a man assaulted in Old Quebec Street, which is at the western end of central London's main Oxford Street shopping thoroughfare.

"Our officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and discovered a man aged in his 70s suffering an injury believed to have been caused by a knife," the spokesman said.