Pakistan has failed to protect minorities: Canadian Sikhs

TORONTO - Condemning the beheading of two Sikhs by the Pakistani Taliban as “an act of barbarians,” Sikhs in Canada Tuesday urged tough action the killers. They also said Pakistan had failed to protect its minorities.

“By committing such acts the Taliban are reinforcing the fact that the fight to eliminate them is just. The world should assist in these efforts as Taliban violence is not directed towards one entity or country or people,” said Toronto Sikh Spinning Wheel Film Festival founder and noted physician Birinder Singh Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia, who runs Canada’s biggest diagnostic centre here, told IANS: “Such wanton acts of violence can only be attributed to extreme lack of respect for human life and in this case Sikhs have become the victims. Sikhs around the world should help their displaced brethren in this war-torn land.”

Calling the beheadings an “act against humanity”, Gurbax Singh Malhi, Canada’s first Sikh MP since 1993, told IANS: “The ongoing human right violations that are affecting the minorities - most recently the Sikh community - in north-western Pakistan require the immediate attention of the Canadian government. Innocent lives are senselessly taken as minorities are not provided with the protection they need against the atrocities of the Taliban.”

He urged Canada to take up the issue with Pakistan for protection of minority groups “and also ensure that the refugee applications from Pakistan’s affected minorities are speeded up.”

Jarnail Singh of Canada’s oldest Ross Street gurdwara in Vancouver said, “We will petition Pakistan to increase security for Sikhs and take strong action the killers.” Calling the Taliban barbarians, he said, “India should protest strongly to Pakistan on human rights violations of minorities in that country.”

Nachhattar Singh Chohan, former president of Canada’s biggest Dixie Road gurdwara here, said: “Pakistan has failed to protect its minorities. Taliban killers should be made to pay for their crime.”

Urging India to pressure Pakistan, he said, “Since Sikhs in Pakistan are feeling insecure, they must be allowed to migrate to India.”

“It is a shameful act by the Taliban and we demand action by both Pakistan and the world community as a whole, especially after the stern promise of the Pakistani government to protect the minorities, right here in Toronto,” Roger Nair, chairman of South Asians for Human Rights Association (SAHRA) in Toronto, told IANS.

“Allowing these atrocities to continue is simply unacceptable,” said Nair who last year hosted a round-table meeting in Toronto on minorities human rights where Canadian Sikh MP Tim Uppal, on behalf of the government, announced $5 million aid for displaced refugees in Pakistan.

The meeting was also attended Pakistan’s Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti who had vowed to protect Sikhs in Pakistan from the Taliban-controlled areas.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)