London: Dozens of far-right English Defence League (EDL) members joined protests by radical Sikhs in the town of Luton, which is about 50 km north of London, furious about the way young women in their communities are being sexually exploited and groomed by British-Pakistani Muslims.
The protest took place outside the Luton police station over the way the police was handling a case in which a young Sikh woman was beaten and sexually assaulted by a ''Muslim man'', The Daily Mail reports.
The EDL members, including leader Tommy Robinson and his right-hand man Kevin Carroll, wore a rumal, the traditional Sikh headscarf to signify their support for Sikhs.
They brought traffic to a standstill, with female protesters laying down in the dual-carriageway that splits the town centre.
"When the police fail to protect the community, when they fail to protect daughters, we have to protect them": Robinson said. "We live in a community where Muslim paedophile gangs are operating without police pressure. If a Sikh girl is attacked in Luton that is my problem because she is a member of my community," he added.
Jasvinder Singh Nagra of the Luton Gurdwara temple said: ''Young girls of school and college age are being targeted by men from the Pakistani community.”
"They are duping them into believing they are in love and it all comes to grief because they are treated as sex toys," she added. "Before they know it they are with this man and then compromising photographs will be taken of her. She will be threatened with having these shown to her family and the fear of losing honour is a very powerful tool to make her do what the man wants," she added.
ANI
First Published: Sunday, July 01, 2012, 15:15