Thursday, February 16, 2012

Tejkhera incident has hurt Sikh community: Makkar

Amritsar, Feb 15 (PTI) SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar today said an incident of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib took place in Tejkhera area in Rajasthan and an SGPC team was sent there to look into it. The incident had hurt sentiments of the Sikh community, he said. Giving details, Makkar said some unscrupulous elements threw two Saroops of Guru Granth Sahib (the holy books of Sikhs) at Tejkhera in the stagnant water recently. The SGPC team retrieved the Saroops and reported the matter to police. Police had registered a criminal case in this connection, Makkar said.

with thanks : IBNLive : Link in headline above.

1984 Sikh riots: Release of accused stayed

New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna has reversed a decision of commuting life sentence of a convict in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and asked Delhi's Sentence Review Board to give it a relook following protests by a section of Sikh community.
The decision to send the case again to State Review Board was taken following opposition by a section of Sikh community to the decision to commute life sentence of Kishori Lal, 48, a former butcher from Trilokpuri in East Delhi who was accused of stabbing to death several people in the neighbourhood during the riots.
"The State Review Board has been asked by the Lt Governor to review the Lal's case again," sources said on Wednesday.
Lal had been sentenced to death in at least five cases by the lower courts.

with thanks : IBNLive : Link in headline for detailed news.
Plz view the video from the link below :
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/1984-sikh-riots-release-of-accused-stayed/230613-3.html

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Butcher of Trilokpuri’ set free; AISSF rushes to court

A day after the media reported that Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) Tejendra Khanna has commuted the life sentence of Kishori Lal (48), convicted of multiple murders in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) announced to file a PIL before Delhi High Court challenging the move.
Khanna, acting on the recommendations of the state Sentence Review Board (SRB), recently commuted the sentence of Lal, who had earned the sobriquet Butcher of Trilokpuri after he allegedly killed several people, and 14 other life convicts.
Karnail Singh Peermohammad, president, AISSF, said that commuting Lal’s sentence would amount to another injustice to the victims of 1984 Sikh massacre. “The PIL will be based on the ground that commutation and release of such a hardened criminal, who murdered several Sikhs including three brothers Darshan Singh, Amar Singh and Nirmal Singh, by cutting them into pieces with his hatchet, will pose a threat to the safety of the witnesses who testified against him,” Peermohammad said.
“Commuting the sentence of Kishori Lal who murdered several sikhs in cold blood would amount to another injustice to the victims of November 1984 Sikh massacre. Kishori Lal’s sentence is commuted at time when victims of November 1984 are fighting against the Clean Chit given to Jagdish Tytler and are trying to get Sajjan Kumar convicted,” remarked Peermohammad.

with thanks : Indian Express : link in headline for detailed news.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

No cure for Punjab’s drug problem

Chandigarh, Feb 10, 2012, (IANS):


From leading politicians to the Chief Election Commissioner to the Sikh’s mini-parliament, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, everyone expresses concern over the growing menace of drug abuse in Punjab but no one really suggests the cure.

The state, which is the food bowl of the country as it contributes over 60 per cent of grains (wheat and paddy) to the national kitty, has a widespread problem of drugs especially among youth.An earlier study by researchers at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, 250 km from here, estimated that “73.5 per cent of youth between 16 and 35 years are addicted to drugs.”

In the last couple of months, security agencies in Punjab have recovered nearly 75 kg of heroin, a high-end drug, worth over Rs 350 crore in the international market, said a Punjab police official. Heroin is smuggled mainly through the Afgha -nistan-Pakistan route, said an official from state anti-narcotics department.

“We have encountered the problem of liquor during elections in almost all states. But drug abuse is unique only to Punjab,” CEC S Y Qureshi said during the run up to the Jan 30  Assembly polls in the state.

State anti-narcotics department revealed that five weeks from the January polls, various agencies recovered nearly 50 kg of heroin apart from huge amount of unaccounted cash and illicit liquor. Punjab had accounted for 60 per cent of the total drugs seized in the country in 2010-11, it added.

with thanks : Deccan Herald : link in the headline for detailed news.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Sd. Param jit Singh Sarna on Stay on the DSGMC Elections - Part 2 : SikhsIndia




SikhsIndia
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.in

Sd. Param jit Singh Sarna on Stay on the DSGMC Elections - Part 1 : SikhsIndia




SikhsIndia
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.in

SGPC challenges HC order on Sehajdari Sikhs

Challenging the High Court order quashing the notification of the Centre banning Sehajdhari Sikhs from voting in SGPC elections, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court.
The recent Punjab and Haryana High Court order quashing the Centre notificaition banning Sehajdhari Sikhs from casting votes in the SGPC elections has affected the working of the Sikh body.
The order meant that the newly-elected house has not been able to hold its first meeting to elect its office bearers. The SGPC has not filed a writ petition against the High Court order in the Supreme Court.

with thanks : dayandnightnews : LINK in headline above for detailed news.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Pak should allow Sikh pilgrims to enter without visa: Sarna

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Paramjeet Singh Sarna requested the Pakistan government on Tuesday to allow Sikh pilgrims to visit their religious places located in the neighbouring country without passport and visa.

“When a Kashmiri from India is allowed to enter on the basis of a certificate issued by an SDM to visit Pakistan, then why is a Sikh not allowed to visit religious places in Pakistan? We request them to allow us enter without passport or visa,” said Sarna in a press conference. 

Sarna also revealed that he has received a letter from Pakistan government giving DSGMC permission for taking up any renovation work in Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in Lahore and Babay-de-Bairee in Sialkot. “We had requested the Pakistan government to allow us to take up renovation work in our Gurdwaras there. We managed to get permission now as I received a letter in this regard signed by Deputy Secretary Shrines Evacuee Trust Property Board, Government of Pakistan, Syed Faraz Abbas,” said Sarna.

with thanks : Deccan Herald : link in headline for detailed news.

Sikh house of worship in Sterling Heights vandalized with anti-Muslim graffiti

A Sikh house of worship under construction in Sterling Heights was vandalized this week by what appears to be anti-Muslim graffiti.
A Sikh house of worship in Sterling Heights under construction was vandalized with what appears to be anti-Muslim graffiti.
The Sikh building, known as a gurdwara, was defaced sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning, a Sikh advocacy group said today. Some of the graffiti reads: “Don’t Builed” and “Mohmed,” which seems to refer to Islam’s prophet, Mohammed. The graffiti also included a Christian cross, a pistol, and the letters R and A. It’s unclear what the letters refer to.
In the West, Sikh men are sometimes confused for being Muslim because they wear full beards and turbans. Over the past ten years, some Sikhs in the U.S. have been victims of violent bias attacks because they’re wrongly perceived to be Muslim. Based in India, Sikhism arose about 300 years ago and now has about 25 million adherents.
Jasjit Singh of the Sikh American Legal Defense Education Fund, said: “attacks and vandalism against any of the nation’s houses of worship must be condemned by all Americans.”
Singh asked anyone who has information about the incident to call Sterling Heights police at (586) 446-2800. The Sikh house of worship is on Dequindre Rd. just north of 14 Mile.

with thanks : freep : link in headline above for detailed news.