According to Global Strat View, a media group, the incident involving the kidnapping, rape, forced conversion, and marriage of a young Sikh girl named Dina Kaur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has revealed the actual condition of the minority in the nation. On September 8, during a demonstration in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, representatives of the Sikh community and organizations of the Pakistan Panchayat directly appealed to the international Sikh community to join them in the release of the innocent child.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) founder, previously claimed that the minority community is “happy” to live in Pakistan. However, the number of atrocities committed against the Sikh community in Pakistan is rising, exposing this claim as false.
Pannun had earlier asserted in response to a query from Global Strat View about whether SFJ will include Pakistan’s Sikh community in the Khalistan referendum, stating that “20,000 or 25,000 Sikhs living happily and they call Pakistan their home.”
Pakistan’s Sikh community is in constant danger.
A Pakistani parliamentary committee shot down a proposed bill to safeguard minorities from forced conversion in October 2021. Media reports claimed that the Pakistani government is misleading Sikhs and the international community by maintaining only a small number of gurdwaras. At the same time, hundreds of these historical landmarks are being destroyed and desecrated.
The local government in Pakistan has been defiling and illegitimately occupying the Sikh community’s places of worship, hurting their feelings. Local authorities in Pakistan are blatantly ignoring gurdwaras. Numerous gurdwaras are in poor condition.
Pakistan’s Sikh community is a constant victim of brutal torture and mistreatment.
On May 15, two Sikh men were shot and killed in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In an attack for which the Islamic State of Khorasan (IS-K) claimed responsibility, Kanwaljeet Singh, 42, and Ranjeet Singh, 38, was shot and killed. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government gave the go-ahead to detain the murderers right away. But nothing more was done.
In the province, there have been numerous attacks on the Sikh community. Last year, a Sikh man was also murdered in the area, but no one was taken into custody.
However, Sikhs are not the only ones. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reports of Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and Shi’as are also targeted.
Pakistan Sikh Council patron-in-chief Sardar Ramesh Singh estimates that 12–14 Sikhs have been killed in the past few years. He asserted that the state must apprehend and punish those responsible for the killings because the public is unaware of their identities.
Sardar Mastan Singh, a leader of the Sikh minority in Pakistan, and his family were also brutally attacked in April at Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, by local Muslims. At Nankana sahib in Pakistan, Islamist radicals beat Sardar Mastan Singh and his sons Dilawar Singh and Palla Singh.
Sardar Mastan Singh is a Sikh leader and former president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee. In Nankana Sahib’s government hospital, he and his two sons received treatment for their severe injuries sustained during the attack.
On April 20, 2022, a family member’s video surfaced on social media. Dilawar Singh stated in the video, “We are the ones who raise the slogans for freedom. Do take note of what has occurred to us. These people have repeatedly assaulted us over the past ten years. In Nankana, we got into a fight with them. We have our own lands there, thanks to my maternal uncle. Its land area is approximately five and a half acres. We have managed to keep it somehow. However, the public and the police continue to bargain with us. This annoys us. As we were harvesting the crop, a few people suddenly appeared and brutally beat us.”
He continued, “They fired few bullets from their guns. They threatened us, so they did this. They beat my brother with sticks, causing injury. Two more patients recently left this hospital after receiving treatment for wounds received during this fight. No one pays attention to us. In society, we are portrayed as jokers. Tell me, how did we get to be free. Does this place allow for such freedom? These people are harming our properties and us here. Forget about freedom; we aren’t even secure in this location. I implore the Supreme Court to consider our case.”
Dilawar Singh stated that his brother Palla Singh’s condition was critical, and police made no arrests regarding the assault. He claimed that by occupying the lands of the populace, land mafia groups are growing stronger daily with the help of government officials and the police.
The Sikh community claims that the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) and Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETBP) don’t care about Sikh religious sentiments.
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