HUMANITY IS PROUD OF YOU
Pakistani Deputy Attorney General Khurshid Khan shines shoes at Gurudwara Rakabganj in New Delhi Photo: Sanjeev Rastogi/Times Of India
Pakistan Deputy Attorney-General Mr.Khurshid Khan of Peshawar spend several hours polishing the shoes of worshippers at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in New Delhi on 26th March 2012 when he was in India as a part of a Pakistani Supreme Court Bar Association delegation( SCBA )to India.Same day he also left for Amritsar,home of the Golden Temple and the centre of the Sikh religion, to clean thousands more.after India's Sikh prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, indicated he had no objection with Mr.Khan's continuing his pilgrimage at the Golden Temple.
Mr.Khan began his service pilgrimage after Jaspal Singh, one of three Sikh men kidnapped by Taliban militants in Peshawar in 2010, was murdered. The other two men were rescued by the Pakistani Army. Since then he has visited Sikh temples or Gurdwaras in Pakistan and India to declare his opposition to terrorism through'sevadari'– service –to other religions
Mr Khurshid Khan said he was so upset by the killing and his fear that it associated his own Muslim faith with terrorism that he went to sit on the steps of Peshawar's Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh. He felt a sense of peace, he told The Times of India, and resolved to visit other places of worship, including Hindu temples and Christian churches to offer his help.
"I am a Muslim,not a terrorist;I am a Khan,not a terrorist;I am from Pakistan,but not a terrorist,"he explained.
The Taliban had damaged Pakistan's 'pluralistic' heritage –there are still Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities throughout the country – but it was unfair "to tarnish a whole community for the sins of a few," he said.
He visited his local Gurdwara every day for two months, where he read the works of the Sikh gurus, including Guru Nanak, and polished shoes. In both India and Pakistan, shoes are regarded as dirty, and touching the feet of another is an act of self-abasement and respect.
Paramjeet Singh Sarna, president of Delhi's Sikh Gurdawara Management Committee, said "There is always this underlying impression that every Pakistani is a radical but people like Khurshid have changed this image.His act has a message for the entire humanity. Although he as an individual didn't hurt or kill anybody, he has shown remorse for the innocent victims of the Taliban in Pakistan, including a Sikh, by performing community service. We are thankful to him for everything he has done for the minorities in Pakistan,"
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March 27, 2012 by Dean Nelson Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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