‘Sikhs must lend helping hand’
The separatist Sikh group Dal Khalsa while condemning the recent threat letters as “the handiwork of state-sponsored actors,” has called upon Sikh communities in Jammu and Kashmir to “lend a helping hand to their Kashmiri brethren in their hour of crisis”.
Representatives of the Dal Khalsa, which is part of a coalition with various factions of the Huriyat Conference, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights, has however voiced deep concern over the alarm and panic amongst Valley Sikhs in wake of what they described as “fake threat letters”.
The group’s spokesman, Mr Kanwarpal Singh, who called APHC chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday morning, said, “Geelani sahib has assured me that nobody would force Sikhs to leave their homes in the Valley or to join the ongoing protests. He (Geelani) has also issued a written assurance while asking the Sikh community to ‘remain cautious against the evil designs of vested interests who are trying to harm the Kashmiri struggle by giving it different colours.”
Mr Singh said he has urged the Kashmiri leadership to identify and expose “elements that are playing the larger game of the Indian state to defame the struggle”. He said, “There is a deep-rooted conspiracy by vested interests to pit Sikhs against Muslims,” and that “the Indian mainstream media is helping such elements fulfil their design.”
Dal Khalsa leaders said they had also contacted All J&K Sikh Coordination Committee leader Jagmohan Singh Raina and assured him “the full support of the entire Sikh Panth in such times of difficulty.”
The radical Sikh group however believes that “while Jammu and Kashmir Sikhs must maintain cordial relations with both Kashmiri Muslims and Hindu Pandits, as the majority community in the Valley, it is the duty of the Muslims to protect minority communities.
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