Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
New Delhi, October 30: The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) General Secretary Mr. Manjinder Singh Sirsa has urged External Affairs Minister Mrs. Sushma Swaraj to urgently take up issue of atrocities on Sikhs in Pakistan with the Pakistan government as fresh cases of attacks on sikh leader and rape with a sikh girl have been reported from the country.
In a letter written to Mrs. Swaraj, Mr. Sirsa said that the Chairman of the Sikh Committee of Pakistan and human rights defender Radesh Singh Tony has been forced to leave Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and exile to Punjab so save his live after surviving three gun attacks in Peshawar. He said that these gun attacks have been carried out in last four months whereas another sikh leader Charanjit singh was shot dead by unidentified armed men in his grocery store at Scheme Chowk on Kohat road in Peshawar earlier.
Mr. Sirsa disclosed that Radesh Singh had actively participated in human rights programmes and protests of civil society organizations in province. He also said that he was elected to local government for a minority general councilor seat but has resigned to contest last general election for assembly seat and was only member of a minority community who contested the general election as an independent candidate in PK-75 constituency. He said that four successive attacks have forced him to leave his home town.
The DSGMC General Secretary also informed the External Affairs Minister that similarly a case of rape of sikh girl in Nanakan Sahib has been reported a minor girl aged 15 years was raped by two persons. He said that that girl was mentally unstable and went missing from a Gurudwara Sahib in Nankana Sahib. He said that it is worst case where father of the girl found her daughter inside an ambulance where two men were assaulting here and they fled from the scene. He said that this girl was thrown out at a distance of 2 kms and is now under treatment at a hospital where her condition is critical.
Mr. Sirsa urged Mrs. Swaraj to take up these cases of atrocities with the Pakistan government on urgent basis and pressurize it to take action against the guilty in both the cases as well as take steps to ensure safety of the Sikhs in Pakistan. He said that if the Pakistan government fails to do so, the DSGMC will raise the issue at the UN and other International forums to ensure that justice is delivered to Sikhs residing in Pakistan.
