Supreme Sikh Council UK condemns civilian killings by terrorists in J&K

The Sikh council also asked Pakistan Government to hold those responsible for killing dozens of civilians each year in J&K, reports Asian Lite News

Supreme Sikh Council UK has asked the Pakistan Government to control extremist groups operating from Pakistan targeting civilians of J&K and condemned condemned the killing of a Sikh doctor in Peshawar in Pakistan last week and further five targeted killings of civilians by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

This includes a female Sikh head teacher, prominent Hindu pharmacist and a Hindu male teacher with an intention to create fear and panic amongst minority community of Jammu and Kashmir, media reported.

“We have also had disturbing reports of Taliban entering a Gurdwara Sahib in Kabul, destroying CCTV cameras, threatening the Sangat and apprehending some of community members,” Supreme Sikh Council United Kingdom in a statement as quoted by Zee News.

The Sikh body said it is concerned with frequent reports of persecution of minority communities in Pakistan including kidnapping, rape, forced conversion and marriages of girls from Sikh and Hindu communities in Pakistan.

The Sikhs of Kashmir protested against the brutal killing of teachers after cremation of Supinder Kaur. Sikhs have called upon govt to act in timely manner to punish the perpetrators of crime. #Kashmir

pic.twitter.com/hJc8ArpGMM

— The Kashmiri Sikh Project (@kashmirisikhpro) October 8, 2021

“Such murders and targeted persecution are designed to create fear and ethnically cleanse areas as was the case leading up and during partition. We call upon Pakistan government to protect rights of minorities in Pakistan and to use its influence on Taliban regime in Afghanistan to uphold rights of minorities in Afghanistan,” the council was quoted as saying in the report.

Meanwhile, it also asked Pakistan Government to hold those responsible for killing dozens of civilians each year in J&K and urged the Indian Government to do much more to protect the lives of minorities in J&K who are being mercilessly killed and driven from their own homes.

“These are ancestral homelands of people from different faiths including Sikhs and Hindus and we all need to coexist peacefully. The world is changing and the idea of single faith land no longer fits the ethos of a modern world where diversity is celebrated and pluralism welcomed,” the statement added.