Condemning the attack on an elderly Sikh man by a teenaged British girl near a bus stand in Coventry’s Trinity Street on August 10, Shiromani Akali Dal on Sunday described it as another shameful example of hate crime.
The party urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Union External Affairs Ministry to take up the case with UK Government at the highest level to ensure strictest punishment to the accused. The party also expressed deep concern over the safety and security of Sikh diaspora settled in various parts of the world.
SAD secretary and spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema, in an official statement, said that this “unfortunate and horrifying incidence has shaken the Sikh community world over”. “It is saddening to see that the number of such racial attacks on Sikhs settled abroad have increased manifold. But in spite of this alarming situation, the Union Government has not taken up these cases seriously with the concerned authorities,” said Cheema.
Cheema said that when Dr Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister, everybody expected that he will take some good initiatives to solve the issue of identity crisis and incidences of such hate crimes will decline. “But, practically reverse has happened,” he added.