Akali Dal protests raids on Khalsa Aid offices

Chandigarh, Aug 5 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday reacted against “the spate of raids being conducted in Punjab on mere suspicion against individuals and organisations linked with Sikhism” and engaged in carrying on social welfare and relief work in the state, the country and abroad.

Addressing the media here, senior SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra took strong exception to the manner in which raids were conducted on individuals and offices belonging to the Khalsa Aid.

Chandumajra also condemned the manner in which respected Sikh NRI Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi, a sitting member of British Parliament, was stopped and harassed before being allowed to board his flight from the international airport in Amritsar.

“Deplorable incidents like these remind the Sikh masses of the era of the Congress rule, especially under Indira Gandhi, when even the most highly respected Sikhs like the country’s only Marshall of the Air Force, Arjan Singh, and eminent journalist Khushwant Singh were targeted by anti-Sikh mobs in Delhi or when the Akali workers and leaders like Sardar Parkash Singh Badal and Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra were stopped from entering the national capital during the Asian Games,” he said.

“Raid and others modes of harassment, including false cases, against innocent Sikhs on the merest suspicion intensify the already deep sense of hurt and emotional alienation of the Sikh masses from the national mainstream. It is natural for us to feel targeted,” said Chandumajra.

Referring to the raid on Khalsa Aid branch in Punjab, he said: “If there was any specific complaint against any individual, he should be questioned and treated under due process of law instead of being harassed and humiliated by government agencies as the Khalsa Aid workers were being subjected to such treatment.”

“Why should an entire organization, engaged in humanitarian work, be defamed and harassed for the wrong doings of any single individual connected with it, even if the said individual may have violated some clauses of the law of the land,” he said.

He urged the Union Home Minister to intervene to get such discriminatory acts stopped.

Chandumajra said his party will continue to champion the cause and interests of Khalsa Panth and Punjabis against all repressive measures and methods being adopted by the governments of the day.

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