Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday urged the Union External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to seek a categorical assurance from Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan that assets and lives of minorities would be protected in the neighbouring country.
Pak PM should also assure that all those responsible for the hate attack on the Sikhs as well as stoning of Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Nankana Sahib would be arrested and awarded exemplary punishment, the party demanded.
The demands were made by the party delegation, led by SAD president Sukhbir Badal, which called on the Union External Affairs Minister.
Sukhbir also urged Dr Jaishankar to raise the issue of atrocities being committed by Pakistan against minorities in the United Nations.
“From a total of 40,000 in 2002 Census, the Sikh population had come down to around 5,000…This itself is proof of forced conversions,” he said.
Sukhbir said that the delegation members, who included MPs Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra and Naresh Gujral, Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Managemnet Committee (DSGMC) president Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Takth Patna Sahib Committee president Avtar Singh Hit and Harmeet Singh Kalka, also briefed the External Affairs Minister that the situation was so bad in Pakistan that even those looking after gurdwaras were not safe.
Urging for urgent intervention on this issue at the highest level, Sukhbir said “if anybody can attack and stone Gurdwara Janam Asthan, no minority is safe in Pak”.
SAD delegation also pointed out that the Pakistan Government should be asked to take prompt and exemplary action in case any minority community is targeted in any manner. “If the Government had acted decisively in the case of attack on Sikh community members at Gurdwara Janam Asthan and stoning of the Gurdwara, it would not have set off the chain reaction which led to the killing a Sikh youth in Peshawar,” he added.
The delegation members also conveyed to Dr Jaishankar that the recent events in Pakistan had hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community worldwide.
They said that the Sikhs living in Pakistan had already stated that they were feeling insecure.