Patiala: The Centre is vigorously taking up
with US officials the issue of Sikhs being subjected to
elaborate security checks at its airports, Minister of State
for External Affairs Preneet Kaur on Saturday said.
"Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is aware that Sikhs
are scanned on the airports in USA and their turbans are
patted and therefore, we are vigorously taking it up with our
counterparts in the US," Preneet told reporters at village
Gurthali-Kishangarh in the district.
"Turban is the identity of the Sikhs," said the Congress
MP from Patiala.
India`s Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Puri
was reportedly asked by airport officials at Houston recently
to remove his turban during a security check.
However, Puri had sought to downplay the incident,
saying he did not allow removal of his turban.
Replying to a question, she said, "Detailed exercise for
review of cases of blacklisted Sikh NRIs, which include
unspecified number of Indo-Canadians, has been undertaken by
the Home Ministry. Out of the 51 cases, names of seven Sikh
NRIs in the Black List have since been deleted after following
prescribed procedure".
She further said that 24 more names have been deleted
for the wards of blacklisted Sikhs and their names have not
been disclosed due to security reasons.
PTI
