India | Pak
India summons Pakistani diplomat to lodge strong protest over attacks on Sikhs
New Delhi/IBNS: India Monday summoned a senior diplomat of the Pakistan High Commission and lodged a strong protest over the recent attacks on Sikh community members in the neighbouring country, reports said.
Four incidents have taken place between April and June this year, and India has taken serious note of these incidents, the sources added.
India has demanded that Pakistani authorities investigate these violent attacks on the Sikh community with sincerity, and share the investigation reports.
It has also been conveyed that Pakistan should ensure the safety and security of its minorities, who live in constant fear of religious persecution, the sources said.
On Sunday, Sikh leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa in tweets said that two Sikhs were attacked in the past two days in Peshawar, Pakistan. Manmohan Singh, a shopkeeper, died while Tarlok Singh barely managed to survive.
He accused the “callous” Pakistan government of remaining “a mute spectator to all such targeted attacks on Sikhs”.
Sirsa urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and JP Singh, Joint Secretary and in charge of the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division to address the safety of Sikhs in Pakistan.
Earlier Sirsa shared news about Sikh shopkeeper Tarlok Singh being shot and injured by unknown gunmen in the Rashidgarhi area of Peshawar in Pakistan. He was rushed to the hospital. The assailants fled the scene and no one has been caught yet.
“This is one more attack in the series of violence happening against minority Sikhs and Hindus in Pakistan,” Sirsa tweeted.
He accused the Government of Pakistan of behaving “like a mute spectator which encourages radical elements to plan more such targeted attacks against minorities”.
According to reports, the Sikh population has come down from 40,000 to 8,000 between 2002 and 2022 in Pakistan.
[With UNI inputs]
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