Sikhs raise minority issues with British High Commission team

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 22

A delegation of the All Party Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) met a team of the British High Commission and raised issues faced by the minority communities of the state.

APSCC chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said they met a British High Commission team headed by first secretary Alex Pykett here yesterday and discussed the Sikh community affairs in J&K. He said they pointed out that the minority status was not being granted to the Sikh community of the state.

Stating that the Sikhs firmly believed in ‘Kashmiriyat’, brotherhood and would put best efforts to strengthen it further, Raina said: “The National Commission of Minorities has clearly spelt out that Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis are minorities in India. There are certain special privileges for the people belonging to the minority communities. However, for reasons best known to them, the state government did not extend the National Commission for Minorities Act to J&K.”

Sikh leader Ajit Singh Mastana said when the Kashmiri Pandits migrated out of the Valley post militancy, Sikhs stayed back, but those living in rural areas faced ‘migration of sorts’. They moved to the Srinagar city and other towns that they considered to be peaceful areas.

He said the properties of minorities in villages were now in a ramshackle condition and their once fertile land was virtually useless.

Sikh youth leader Pardeep Singh also highlighted the Chittisinghpura case in which 36 Sikhs were killed in March 2000 while adding that the community was still waiting for the completion of the probe.

Raina alleged that the Sikhs were being discriminated against by the Centre and the state government.