New Delhi, January 3
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has asked the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to give him a list of Sikhs who have been languishing without trial in cells in foreign countries after being duped by travel agents.
SGPC chief Avtar Singh, who met the President today along with Shiromani Akali Dal leaders Sukhbir Singh Badal and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, said that many youths from the Sikh community were facing troubles in foreign countries, including Pakistan, after being duped by travel agents who had promised them handsome jobs abroad. He said many Sikh youths were in foreign jails without trial.
Mr Avtar Singh also demanded proper screening of all militancy-related cases so that innocent persons and those with minor offences were let off. He said a number of Sikh youths detained under various militancy-related laws were still languishing in jails though they had completed their prison terms.
Mr Dhindsa told The Tribune later that the President had asked for a list of people languishing in Punjab jails without trial since their imprisonment during the unrest in the state. The SGPC also urged the President to take steps for return of items “taken away” from the Sikh Reference Library during Operation Bluestar in 1984.
Welcoming the decision of India and Pakistan Governments to launch bus service between Amritsar and Lahore and Amritsar and Nankana Sahib, Mr Avtar Singh said the SGPC should be entrusted the task of managing the bus service to the Sikh religious places.
Raising the problems faced by the Sikhs in France, he said they had been denied admission to government schools with their turbans. He urged the President to take up the issue with the French Government.
In the nine-point memorandum to Dr Kalam, the SGPC chief also referred to the condition of gurdwaras in Afghanistan, saying that Sikh shrines in that country required immediate attention and the SGPC should be allowed to perform kar seva. The SGPC chief said that the committee should be consulted by the government on having representatives from the Sikh community on panels on textbooks, films and TV, besides the Censor Board.
