WARWICK, UK—In another case of police over reaction, armed police arrived at a Gurdwara Sahib in UK earlier today, in response to a peaceful protest which had been underway there by members of the Sikh congregation.
It has been reported that members of the controversial committee of the Gurdwara Sahib in Leamington Spa had purposefully over-exaggerated the presence of a few dozen peaceful protesters, which resulted in an armed response unit of the police arriving at the Gurdwara Sahib. Over 50 members of the sangat have now been arrested.
Knowing full well that some of the protesters will be baptised (Amrit-dhari), the committee blew reports of the protest out of proportion and complained that protesters armed with blades had taken refuge in the Gurdwara Sahib.
The committee has been in the news a number of times recently as they actively worked against the wishes of the Sikh sangat by attempting to setup alcohol bars upon Gurdwara owned premises.
The Sikh community has reacted furiously and are currently organizing protests at local police stations to highlight the completely disproportionate response to the peaceful protesters, who were sat cross-legged meditating.
British media outlets have sensationalized the reports further with reports using language such as “sword-wielding mobs” to further misrepresent the situation.
The protest was in response to the committee’s willful flouting of the Akal Takht’s edict of mixed-faith marriages not to be carried out at any Gurdwara Sahibs, worldwide.
The committee and the so called in charge of the Gurdwara are disgusting- they need to hand over Guru Granth Sahib’s saroop to the Amritdhari Sikhs and it should be a demand to the Police by all us sikh sangat. On one hand the Government says the Sikhs are great on the other hand lets target them on the say so of some idiots. Great respect the Youth who stand for their rights and you will alway have our support. It is also a duty of the Akaal Takhat to issue a hukmnama to the hand Guru Ji’s saroop to the Sangat and away from the Committee…..
All this is politically motivated and under the influence of agencies and trying to suppress peaceful protests against the administration of the Gurdwara who fail to follow the code of Sikh tenets outlined in the code published by supreme body Akal thakh (GoldenTemple).Such people who are responsible must be removed sooner or later .
I have been watching NDTV (an Indian new channel) which has responded with the usual anti Sikh bias in reporting this story with a running headline ‘ARMED MEN STORM TEMPLE IN UK?’ The question mark indicates that this ‘news channel’ isn’t even sure the incident happened let alone have the correct facts with which to present the story let alone why they are reporting such a totally provincial story (who in india has ever heard of the English county of Warwickshire?) other than to tarnish Sikhs. The headline following this reads ‘REPORT: MEN CARRYING BLADED WEAPONS STORM TEMPLE IN WARWICKSHIRE’. Bladed weapons? You mean kirpans which all Sikhs are mandated to carry? Temple? You mean ‘Gurdwara’, a Sikh place of worship in which ‘bladed weapons’ are kept on public display before Sikhs also carrying kirpans? So we come to the trigger word ‘storm’ which is purposefully reminiscent of ‘storming of the golden temple’, a supposedly justified act to get rid of other militants carrying ‘bladed weapons’. Absolutely disgraceful gutter level reporting from NDTV so typical of their anti Sikh stance. This Leamington Spa Gurdwara committee have handed a propanganda coup to media who are prejudiced towards the Sikh kaum and are probably as corrupt and degenerate as the SGPC, the authority that should be disciplining them for trying to permit meat and alcohol on Gurdwara property.
Well written and totally agreed. The entire MSM is anti-Sikh and unfortunately, Sikhs have no voice and are powerless.
Very difficult times the Panth is going through.
what would be awesome is if panj singhs with another panj in reserve(in protests the try to take out leadership,) to take over this gurdwara that has betrayed the sangat and panth with so much sangat(maybe vet people to try and keep mischievous elements out,) once you reach a critical mass the police don’t have enough manpower to actually arrest everyone so they wont even try. It is maybe good practice to get panj singhs, or more leadership beforehand for protests where its complicated, and inform the media before hand so our side of the story is there, its hard as sometimes these things happen in such short notice. No new gurdwarai should be made that doesn’t have a clause in its constitution for intervention by panthic khalsai panj pyare selected by local sarbat khalsai sangat, This clause should be made it can only be changed if the gurdwara gives the sangat its saroops and nishan sahib. If this gurdwara cant listen to guru panj pyare they shouldn’t have guru granth sahib ji,
Why are their faces covered?