Incidents of violence against Sikhs in Pakistan on the rise

Incidents of violence against Sikhs in Pakistan are reportedly on the rise with the concerned authorities merely acting as mute spectators which has caused much resentment among the community leaders . 

Police were yet to find the whereabouts of the missing first Sikh police officer of Pakistan Gulab Singh that another incident of attack on Sikhs in Nankana Sahib has shocked the community and left them traumatized. 

In the latest incident, Dilawar Singh,  son of the former president of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, his relative Palae Singh, and one more Sikh were thrashed and beaten by a gang of Muslim land mafia in Nanakana Sahib. 

A terrified Dilawar Singh, in a video message, where he is seen attending to his relative in the hospital raises a question mark on the so-called freedom of the minorities in Pakistan. 

“We are raising slogans of azadi, azadi, and azadi, but there is no azadi, our land is being occupied by mafia and for past ten years we are being made victim, instead of taking any action against the accused, the Evacuee Trust Property Board, local civil and police administration is helping them and not us, we are just presented as turbaned jokers “ he alleged in the video. 

He said his family along with his maternal uncle owned 5.5 acres of land in Kot Sant Ram area which was forcibly occupied by the Muslim land mafia and they attacked them while they were harvesting the wheat crop. 

A few days ago Gulab Singh who had been raising the issues of various ‘wrongdoings’ by the authorities had gone missing from Lahore and to date the whereabouts of Gulab Singh are not known. 

When asked about this , the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president  Harjinder Singh termed the injustice and excesses on the minority Sikhs in Pakistan as unfortunate.  

Quoting media reports about  Pakistan's first Sikh police officer Gulab Singh Shaheen's disappearance by an intelligence agency, he said it was an act of repression of minorities. 

Dhami said that in the past too, there had been reports of injustice and excesses on minority Sikhs in Pakistan, which made it clear that Sikhs there are insecure. 

"The matter of the disappearance of Gulab Singh Shaheen to an undisclosed location has caused fear among the Sikhs in Pakistan and the Pakistan government should immediately clarify about his whereabouts", said Harjinder Singh, adding that if the news about missing of Gulab Singh was correct then nothing could be more unfortunate than this.