Srinagar, August 20: Sikhs in the Kashmir Valley have received anonymous letters from Islamic militants asking them to either embrace Islam and join the protests against civilian killings or pack up and leave the Valley. The 60,000-strong Sikh community is the single largest minority group in the Valley.
An organisation of Kashmiri Sikhs said that several community members have received these letters. “Community members have received unsigned letters at various places,” said All Party Sikh Coordination Committee (ASCC) coordinator Jagmohan Singh Raina. He said the community has decided to stay put and fight these “evil designs” at a meeting in Srinagar on Thursday.
Raina quoted a letter as saying: “When you are enjoying the joys here, why can’t you share the grief and sorrow of Kashmiris as well? We know you are afraid of bullets… Hold protests inside gurdwaras or leave Kashmir.” He added, “Some letters have asked Sikhs to embrace Islam.”
Raina urged both factions of the Hurriyat, JKLF and PoK-based United Jihad Council to take serious note of the threats to maintain amity and brotherhood in the Valley.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has reassured the Sikhs saying they shouldn’t feel threatened and should ignore the “fake letters”. He assured the community that nobody would force them to join the protests.
Earlier, Geelani has made an emotional appeal against forcing minorities to join the protests and said harming them would be like “inflicting a wound on his (Geelani’s) body”.
The state unit of Akali Dal (Badal) president Ajeet Singh Mastana described the threats as acts by anti-social elements. “The threats can’t break us and reduce our love for our motherland,” he said.
Kashmir based Sikhs have formed a 101-member committee to take care of the interests of the community in the valley in the wake of the ongoing unrest.
The move is also aimed to dispel rumours aimed at creating confusion among the community members more so after “threatening letters” were found at some Gurudwaras in Srinagar asking the Sikhs either to join protests or leave the valley.
“An emergency meeting of Sikh intellectuals, political parties and all district Gurgdwara Prabandhak committees of the valley was organised, which was presided over by S Moham Singh Trali, vice-president of J&K Gurdwara Prabandhak Board of Kashmir province,” a statement from Prabandhak Board Secretary, S Bupinder Singh said.
“In the beginning two-minute mourning/silence prayer was observed in the memory of all those innocent Kashmiris who have lost their precious lives during the last two months in the valley,” the statement said.
Apart from discussing other issues concerning Sikh community, the meeting stressed on the need to maintain brotherhood and harmony between Muslim and Sikh communities at all costs in the valley.
Stating that a committee was constituted to take due care of the problems and affairs of the Sikh community in the valley, the statement from the Prabadhak Board Secretary said, “Representation of district GPCs, all political parties of the valley was ensured in the committee so that an effective and meaningful monitoring of the prevailing situation is guaranteed to lead and guide the Sikh community during this hour of crisis and mental agony.”
“It was also decided that an action committee based on these 31 executive members will be formed on any convenient day when there will be no hartal or curfew so that all the executive members can participate.”
-Agencies