Global Sikhs raise issues about community

AMRITSAR : Sikh organizations across Europe and USA have sought intervention of UN and America in addressing the community’s issues prominently among them the oppression on Sikhs in India. Movement Against Atrocities and Repression (MAAR) president Harminder Singh Khalsa informed TOI on Saturday that Sikh representatives from as many as a dozen nations gave a memorandum to UN secretary general demanding UN-led inquiry into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
He said they also informed UN that US President Barack Obama, while speaking in Delhi in January, had also criticized Narendra Modi-led NDA government by making a plea for freedom of religion to be upheld in India. He said they had also demanded release of Sikh political prisoners and expressed concern over recent incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab.
The memorandum submitted to UN also informed in detail about the use of police to control protesting Sikhs which resulted in death of two persons. The US Sikh Congressional Caucus has also taken a strong exception to the desecration of holy scripture and has taken up the matter with the American administration. “The caucus has written a letter of concern to the US secretary of state John F Kerry expressing deep concerns over the desecration of the Sikh holy scriptures and the subsequent violence against protesters in Punjab,” informed American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee coordinator Pritpal Singh. He said that US Congressmen Patrick Meehan and Johan Geramandi had also written to Kerry apprising him of the incident of stealing of Guru Granth Sahib from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village of Faridkot district of Punjab and tearing of pages of holy scriptures followed by unrest among Sikhs. He said Congressmen were concerned due to large American Sikh population in their districts and around the country.