PSGPC ex-prez: Gurdwara intact, rumours maligning Pak image
GS PAUL
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, July 29
A video of a former Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) president has surfaced, which claims ‘all is well’ and the issue of converting Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh’s gurdwara was being raked up unnecessarily.
The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) is a statutory board of the Pakistan government that maintains and upkeeps places of worship belonging to Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. It had submitted a complaint with the DIG (ops), Lahore, on July 27, demanding strict disciplinary action against Sohail Butt Attari, a so-called focal person of Darbar Hazrat Shah Kaku Chisti, and his associates for trying to defame Pakistan by uploading a video against the Sikh community. The ETPB claimed Attari conspired to provoke people against the historical Gurdwara Bhai Taru Singh.
Sanaullah Khan, secretary of ETPB, also wrote that the video clip was being used to malign the image of Pakistan, which was a minority loving country, especially after the success of Kartarpur Corridor project.
Meanwhile, in the fresh video, former PSGPC president Bishen Singh also echoed the same views, that Pakistan was being defamed unnecessarily.
He said Bhai Taru Singh’s ‘shaheedi divas’ was observed in July and bhog of ‘akhand path’ was performed at the gurdwara. The shrine is intact at its original place alongside a mazaar. “There is no tension between Sikhs and Muslims. On personal grounds, if any individual does any blunder, we should not blame the whole Muslim community,” Bishen Singh said.
Terming the incident a violation of freedom to practice religion, DSGMC president Manjinder Singh Sirsa said injustice was being done with the Sikh community by wrongly claiming the site of the martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh as the place of Masjid Shahid Ganj. “I appeal to the Pakistan PM Imran Khan to warn such extremist elements and secure the Sikhs’ pious site from illegal encroachers,” he added.
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Bhai Taru Singh was a prominent Sikh martyr who sacrificed his life for protecting Sikh values during the Mughal era. He chose to get his head scalped, rather than cutting his hair or converting to Islam in 1745. A gurdwara was built at Naulakha Bazaar in Lahore to commemorate the spot.
