Dal Khalsa, Sikh group forge alliance

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 21 

The Dal Khalsa and the Sikh Federation (UK) have forged an alliance to work together to pursue the struggle for rights and freedom of Sikh people in India as well as at the international level.

Party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said a resolution to this effect was adopted at a well- attended conference at Wolverhampton in UK. The spokesperson of the Sikh Federation announced here today to work in tandem with the Dal Khalsa as both the organisations stood for right-to-self-determination for the people of Punjab. 

In a significant development, the gathering announced the formation of the International Sikh Governing Council to take forward dealings with foreign governments and international institutions. The conference was organised to commemorate the foundation day of the federation, which attracted 15,000 Sikhs from across UK and others parts of the world. It was the largest political gathering of its kind of members of the Sikh community in the diaspora. 

Terming the alliance as a significant step, Dal Khalsa president Harpal Singh Cheema said both the organisations had a shared interest to carry forward the Sikh struggle to its logical conclusion.

The conference observed that following the Brexit vote, there was a rapidly changing political environment to which British Sikhs would need to carefully respond. They said there was a need to find different ways of lobbying in the EU Parliament on a range of human rights issues as their strength had been UK MEPs and Sikhs from the UK.