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India Internally Displaced: When The Sikhs Fled Khyber

Nov 14, 2008
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PESHAWAR: Ranjeet Singh,28, did not come to the city out of choice. He belongs to one of 1,500 families who moved out of Bara, Khyber Agency as security conditions in the area deteriorated.

“Three people from my family were killed and our shop was destroyed when mortar shells hit our herbal medicine store five months ago,” he said after prayers at the gurdwara in Dabgari. Ranjeet and his family now live with a relative in the provincial capital.
Most people are reluctant to say anything about the situation in Bara or name any group responsible for the mayhem. They even choose to remain silent about their own plight for fear of getting kidnapped or killed.
“No one can freely talk about this because everyone knows they will have to face the consequences,” Ranjeet said, adding the recent abductions and murders of Sikhs are preventing people from speaking up.
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Minorities living in Bara had for long enjoyed equal rights and no one interfered in their religious activities. However, when banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Islam rose to power, their leader Mangal Bagh imposed jizya on the Sikhs. Those who refused to pay the tax were kidnapped and then executed.
“We had been living in Khyber Agency for centuries, running our businesses and carrying out our religious activities without any fear,” said Santok Singh, adding that now it is very risky for them to even move about freely.
Jawal Singh migrated from Shalobar. He used to run a general store in Bara Bazaar. “My family of eight lives in miserable conditions in a rented house. We cannot even afford our daily expenditures.”
An elder of the Sikh community, Sahib Singh, says the government is always making claims of maintaining peace, but the use of force has further deteriorated the security situation in the once peaceful tribal belt.
He said the government and the Supreme Court need to help the Sikhs out of this situation, put an end to the curfew and help them restart their businesses in Bara. He also urged them to announce compensation packages for the affected families and shop owners in
Khyber Agency.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Religious and Minorities Affairs Namroz Khan said the current government has taken several steps for the rehabilitation and welfare of displaced Sikhs. In the last budget, Rs100 million were allocated for the welfare and development of minorities, he said adding that he visits the affected families often.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 12<sup>th</sup>, 2013.




http://tribune.com.pk/story/519285/internally-displaced-when-the-sikhs-fled-khyber/
 

Tejwant Singh

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Jun 30, 2004
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I wish SGPC would spend its energy, finances and political clout for these Sikhs who have been living in the Muslim countries for generations, mainly is Pakistan and Afghanistan and help them emigrate to India and also the Sikh Advocacy groups like United Sikhs, Saldef and Sikh Coalition should advocate the foreign governments like the US, Canada and the UK to give them the refugee status so they can go to any of these countries. No amount of money donation, as the United Sikhs recently did in Afghanistan will help them out of these hell holes.

Islamic countries are being over taken by the Wahhabi Sunni concept of Islam which is the most radical. Soon, the gilded palaces of the Caliphates will crumble and the extremes will take over. It will not be the Arab Spring then but the beginning of the "Barbaric Ice Age". Group genocides of the Kafirs will become the "fraternity parties".This is their mindset. Ruthlessness laced with violence and disregard for all humankind except the birds of the feather are part and parcel of their core.

When partition occurred in 1947, Sikhs were butchered by their best friends. Pakistan has taken most of the land that surround the Gurdwaras and controls all the Gurdwaras there. The Pakistan Govt/Army has its hands immersed in blood and once it is taken over by the radical Wahabbis, things will get much worse for the birthplace of Taliban.

Our visionary Gurus never gave any value to the places of worship.They constructed very few Gurdwaras for the congregations and which moved with our Gurus' journeys except the few ones which had historical rather than a pilgrimage value/concept to them. The Gurdwara for our Gurus lies within all of us. Gurbani proves that. That is the reason our Gurus were against pilgrimages and other mechanical rituals like fasting, parroting etc. etc. and they urge us daily through the beautifuly insighful poetry of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, our only Guru. But it is sad to say that the same things our Gurus wanted us not to do have become our mode de vie. Hence, we call ourselves garb wearing Sikhs while ignoring the teachings of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Little do we know that our daily book is the Munn which makes us perform these anti-Sikhi actions. And Munn is the one which has to be revalued with each action of ours according to Gurbani.

Lastly, I would like to add that Christians' belief makes them wait for the Rapture when Jesus returns-which common sense dictates will never happen-, so that all those who do not convert to Christianity will be thrown into the cauldron of Hell which includes all of us, especially the Jews who have the front row in this Gladiator Arena. But the fact is that the true "Rapture" is coming into Islam much sooner than we realise for real and it is a frightening vision not only for us Kafirs but also for the Muslim women and the Shias.

'It will be all over then baby blue' because the fat lady will not be allowed to sing as singing is Haram in the Wahhabi Islam.

Tejwant Singh
 
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