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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
The murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi in Arizona, United States, on Saturday night by miscreants, sent shock waves amongst the Sikh community in India.
Though the Sikhs had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on New York and Pentagon on last Tuesday, they were being mistaken for Arabs and beaten up by angry Americans.
"We are concerned about the safety of the Sikhs living in the US and we condemn the killing of Balbir Singh Sodhi," Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa told rediff.com on Monday morning.
"I have been in touch with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Defence and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. They have assured me that they have taken up the matter with the US administration," he said.
He said he was in touch with various Sikh organisations in the US for the past one week.
"I have been in touch with them. While they are concerned about their safety and well-being, they have requested their Sikh brothers in India not to do anything that would affect them adversely in America," he said.
Asked if Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal was planning to meet the prime minister on this matter, he said Badal had already spoken to Vajpayee over the phone.
Led by Dhindsa, Hundreds of Sikhs participated in a demonstration held on Monday afternoon to protest against the terrorists attacks in the US and expressed their solidarity with the American people.
The demonstrators were carrying placards that said that 'Sikhs are not Muslims' and 'Bush, Educate the American people that Sikhs are not Muslims or Arabs'.
The demonstrators later handed over a copy of the letter addressed to Bush to the American ambassador in New Delhi.
The letter, signed by Avtar Singh Hit, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, said while the Sikh community condemned the terrorist attacks, it also condemned the killing of innocent Sikhs.
Addressing the demonstrators, former chief minister of Delhi Madan Lal Khurana said that he stood by his Sikh brothers in this hour of crisis.
"The government of India will do everything to ensure the safety of Sikhs in the US," he said, and promised to take up the matter with Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani.
The DGPC also announced that it would prayer meetings in memory of those who were killed in the attacks. The prayers would be held in Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, New Delhi, on Tuesday at 10.30 in the morning.
Later in the evening, prominent Sikhs gathered at the residence of Dhindsa to take stock of the situation after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The Attack on America: The Complete Coverage
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