Complainant in 1984 riots asked if she wants to pursue case

A city court Monday asked a complainant in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case if she still wants to pursue the matter in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a closure report.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar issued notice to Harbinder Kaur, who lost her doctor-husband Iqbal Singh Chadda in the riots sparked by the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, to appear before the court Feb 23.

The court asked Kaur if she still wants to pursue the case. According to court procedures, the complainant is asked this question before a case is closed.

As the proceedings were on in the Karkardooma court, around 250 Sikhs staged a protest outside, torching an effigy of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who is accused of taking part in the 1984 riots that left thousands dead. The police used water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Last week, the CBI filed two chargesheets in two riot cases of Delhi Cantonment and Sultanpuri areas against Sajjan Kumar and others. They were charged with murder, riot, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

The CBI also filed a closure report pertaining to the death of Chadda in the riots in Mangolpuri area.

In its closure report, the CBI said the complainant could not give any information as to where, when and who killed her husband Chadda and burnt his body.

The CBI said that several witnesses of the killing had expired. Several others had shifted residence and were not traceable.

Meanwhile, the court has put the other two chargesheets - filed in Sultanpuri and Delhi Cantonment cases - for further consideration Feb 1.

With thanks source : http://sify.com/news/Complainant-in-1984-riots-asked-if-she-wants-to-pursue-case-news-kbsqEchdgeh.html

SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com

BBC documentary provokes furious response from Sikhs

London: A controversial BBC film about the Indian Army storming Golden Temple in 1984, which depicts late Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale "in a similar way to Osama Bin Laden", has provoked a furious response from many members of the community in Britain, a media report said.

A number of Sikhs have condemned the documentary, 1984: A Sikh Story, which they see as nothing but a slur on Bhindranwale, who was killed during the 'Operation Blue Star' ordered by the then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, the Daily Mail reported.

Please click the headline above to read complete news.

with thanks : source : http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_bbc-documentary-provokes-furious-response-from-sikhs_1335824

SikhsIndia www.sohnijodi.com www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com

Sikhs donate cash for tsunami victims

The merciless tsunami that devastated the people of Samoa four months ago has had its emotional and empathic impact among many in this country, prompting them to mobilise material and financial resources to support relief work and rehabilitate the victims.

The New Zealand Sikh Society of Auckland, led by Ranvir Singh Lali, Daljit Singh, Rajinder Singh, Manpreet Singh and others, raised $5000 for poor people in the affected areas.

They presented a cheque for the amount to Samoan High Commissioner Asi Tuiataga James Faafili Blakelock in the presence of Opposition and Labour Party Leader Phil Goff at the office of Labour MP Ross Robertson in Otara, Auckland recently.

with thanks : source : http://www.indiannewslink.co.nz/index.php/communitylink/3972.html

SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com

Deportation of family enrages Sikh leader

Venkat Raman

A prominent member of the Sikh community in Auckland is enraged over the harassment and “nasty” treatment meted out to his wife and toddler son by Immigration officials at the New Delhi airport. At press time, Ranvir Lali Singh, Secretary of the New Zealand Sikh Society Auckland and a builder, was considering lodging a serious protest after his homemaker wife Shubhneet Kaur and their two-year-old son Bachint Vir Singh returned to New Zealand spending three agonising days travelling between New Zealand and India and barred from entering their home country.

Mr Singh said that his wife and son had travelled to India on a valid visitor permit stamped on their New Zealand passports by the Wellington based Indian High Commission recently.

They were to spend a month in their home country, meeting family and friends.

Shubhneet Kaur has been a resident of New Zealand since 1997 and has since become a citizen of this country. Bachint was born in Auckland in August 2007.

Mr Singh said that the much-anticipated holiday was destroyed and his wife subject to insult and ill-treatment, because of the intransigent officials in India.

“I was shocked to learn that Shubhneet and Bachint were stopped by Immigration at the New Delhi International Airport upon their arrival on January 12. They were supposedly on the ‘Government of India Black List,’ about which we did not know. The officials harassed them and showed no sympathy. Only terrorists and criminals are placed on Black Lists. I cannot understand how a humble housewife and a two-year-old child could be on such a barred list,” he told Indian Newslink, while waiting for their arrival at the Auckland International Airport on January 14.

An Indian High Commission official told this newspaper that the Mission was not aware of the incident and that “there was no record of the two New Zealanders on the Mission’s Black List.

“We need to find out from New Delhi,” the official said.

The ordeal of the two harassed passengers did not end with their deportation from India. They were subject to “unnecessary bag search and interrogation” for more than four hours at the Auckland International Airport.

Immigration and Customs officials wanted to know from Shubhneet Kaur why she was held up at the New Delhi International Airport and why she and her son were deported, the answers to which the harassed woman could not obviously provide.

Mr Singh now wants answers to a number of his own questions.

“How do a housewife and toddler get on to a Black List?”

“If they were in the Black List, how did the High Commission issue a Visitor Visa to both of them? Does not the Indian Government convey the names of those in the Black List to diplomatic missions? If this is so, why were we not informed?”

“What is the basis on which people are Black Listed?”

While Mr Singh awaits answers to these questions, Indian Newslink understands that similarity of names often confuse Immigration officials in India.

But one observer said, “Surely, a mother travelling with a toddler cannot be branded a terrorist! The officials at the New Delhi International Airport should have checked properly and allowed the young woman and her son to enter the country.

“It is equally unbecoming of the officials at the Auckland International Airport to further harass the depressed woman. After all, she is a New Zealand citizen. There should be a proper inquiry into this incident,” he said.

Labour MP and the Party’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Chris Carter said he would take up the matter with the Indian High Commissioner and New Zealand Immigration and Customs.

with thanks : source : http://www.indiannewslink.co.nz/index.php/frontpage/4014.html

SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com

Indian envoy's bid to appease Sikhs

THE Indian high commissioner has urged Melbourne's Sikh community to let the law take its course in response to the burning of a temple.

Sujatha Singh warned against allowing "a few bad elements" to spoil the warm relationship between the two nations.

In her first public address since the murder of 21-year-old accounting graduate Nitin Garg and last week's arson attack on the temple, Ms Singh assured a Melbourne congregation that the Indian government was "very closely monitoring" the wellbeing of Indians in Australia.

Ms Singh said she had been in daily -- "even sometimes hourly" -- contact with the relevant Australian authorities to address community safety concerns.

Speaking to hundreds of worshippers at Blackburn's gurdwara, or Sikh temple, the largest of its kind in Victoria, Ms Singh said: "The incidents that have taken place in recent times have troubled us all, Indians and Australians alike.

"They have been condemned in the strongest possible terms by all right-thinking people."

Ms Singh drew particular attention to the arson attack at the gurdwara in Lynbrook, on Melbourne's southeastern fringe, late last week.

The partially constructed Sikh temple is suspected to have been torched with Molotov cocktails in the early hours of Thursday.

The high commissioner visited the burnt-out Lynbrook temple yesterday morning.

"The incident of arson is receiving the full attention of the concerned authorities," she told the Blackburn worshippers.

"I would like to assure you that both governments are united in their desire to see progress in bringing the perpetrators of these incidents to justice, and in bringing these incidents to a complete stop, ensuring that they do not happen again."

Ms Singh spoke of a tradition of strong ties between India and Australia, and implored the Indian community not to allow "a few bad elements" to spoil "the warmth and good feeling" which continued to exist between the two nations.

After giving her warmly received address, Ms Singh met privately with the president of the Blackburn temple, Dashran Singh, and the vice-president of the Victorian Sikh Association, Jag Bal.

Mr Singh said yesterday's visit marked the first time a high commissioner had attended a service at the Blackburn gurdwara. "Some of the unfortunate incidents of recent months affecting the Indian community are of great concern to all of us," he said.

Mr Bal said he hoped that the high commissioner would be able to give him a firm indication of what assurances the Australian government had given her during their lengthy discussions over the past fortnight. "I want to discuss what support or counselling is being given to the victims of race crimes in Melbourne," Mr Bal said.

Detective Sergeant Gary Kear said that contrary to initial police reports, detectives did not believe the Lynbrook arsonists were young kids mucking about.

"Witnesses have told us that voices that were heard inside the temple were more mature," Sergeant Kear said.

Last week the Blackburn temple wrote to Victoria Police requesting additional security, particularly at night. Two uniformed police officers were present at yesterday's service.

with thanks : source : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/indian-envoys-bid-to-appease-sikhs/story-e6frg6nf-1225820598424

SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com

Subscribers of the blog SikhsIndia : please note as below :

After subscribing the blog, you get a confirmation mail for verification that you have subscribed the blog. It's only after the verification of this mail, you start getting the regular updates in your mail box. We have found that many of you, who have subscribed the blog have not yet confirmed the verification mail. As a result, though you are in our mailing list, you are not getting our regular updates. We again request you to please check your mail box in this regard.

May we request you to please forward about this blog to your friends & relatives all over the world. We will be thankful to you.

with best regards

SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com

George Jacob named as director of the Anandpur Sahib Sikh Museum

A Kaur

Anandpur Sahib, Punjab: A former Project Director at The Smithsonian’s prestigious National Museum of American History, George Jacob, has been named director of the Khalsa Heritage Complex in Anandpur Sahib reports the Midland Daily News. The Khalsa Heritage Complex is one of the largest museum complex in India currently in advanced stages of construction.

Smithsonian trained Jacob, an internationally sought veteran museologist, has been the founding director of two museums in his career.

The 650,000-square-foot museum and heritage center rises above a seven acre web of reflecting pools connected by a 165-meter pedestrian bridge connecting different zones of the museum galleries, library, cafe and performing arts theater, with exhibits celebrating 500 years of heritage, aspirations and living traditions of the Sikh diaspora.Phase 1 of the $224 million project opens in the fall of 2010.

with thanks : source : http://sikhsangat.org/2010/01/george-jacob-named-as-director-of-the-anandpur-sahib-sikh-museum/

SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com