Srinagar: All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) Wednesday demanded minority status in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the government to provide special benefits and relief to the `troubled` community in the state.
Describing Sikhs in the state as a microscopic community, APSCC Convenor Jagmohan Singh Raina said "despite the community being considered a minority in the country, the state has been denying it the benefits."
The representative body of Sikhs in Kashmir also demanded a fresh probe in massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chattisinghpora in Anantnag district nine years ago.
"We demand impartial probe into the Chhatisinghpora and Mehjoornagar massacres of Sikhs to identify the culprits and bring them to justice," APSCC Convenor Jagmohan Singh Raina told reporters here today.
As many as 35 Sikhs were massacred on March 20 in 2000 hen the then US President Bill Clinton was in India while six youths from the community were massacred at Mehjoornagar a year later.
Seeking a compensation for the alleged `illegal` occupation of their agriculture or horticulture land, especially in Baramulla, he said that the population of the community was on decline due to state government`s apathy towards it.
Bureau Report
