ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Following the targeted killings of their fellow community members in Pakistan, Sikhs have threatened to launch a countrywide agitation if their safety is not ensured by the government. In recent months, a number of Sikhs have been targeted in Pakistan, and their condition is getting vulnerable day by day.
The rigid statement was made by the members of the victim community who held a protest march on Monday in the northwest Mardan city. The protest was organized against the killings of several Sikh businessmen in the militancy-hit Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In addition to Sikh organizations, the protest march was led by human rights advocacy group All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement (APHR), whose chairman PR Haroon Sarb Diyal expressed deep concern over the targeted killings of Sikhs in Pakistan.
Diyal said that he was not satisfied with steps being taken by the government for the protection of minority communities in Pakistan.
He lamented that the legislators representing minorities in national and provincial assemblies had also failed to take up real issues that affected Sikhs, Hindus and others in Pakistan.
Janmohan Singh, a local Sikh leader, stated that one of his relatives named Amarjeet Singh was killed by unknown persons inside his shop at Shaheedan Bazaar last Wednesday. He termed the case an incident of targeted killing. He said this incident had spread fear among Sikhs and other minority communities residing in Pakistan.
“This was the sixth or seventh case of killing of our community member in targeted attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the government has failed so far to take the killers into its custody, and take effective steps for providing us security,” he added. Another Sikh trader identified as Har Jeet Singh was stabbed to death last Saturday in Peshawar.
