NEW YORK, NY (SSN/KP) – The Sikh human rights organization, Sikhs for Justice, ramped up efforts to expose the India Government’s ongoing oppression of the Sikhs community in the Punjab. The organization’s website: http://www.referendum2020.org/ has received close to 20 thousands signatories that are requesting the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion to visit Punjab to first hand witness the brutalities being waged against the Sikh community.
The on-line petition states:
India’s crimes against Sikhs began with its assault on, and the massacres at, the Golden Temple in June 1984 and continued with the nationwide Genocide of Sikhs in November 1984 resulting in over 30,000 deaths followed by extra judicial killing of more than 100,000 under the cover of counter insurgency operations between 1984-98. The crimes against Sikhs still continue, not just in the cover-up and the sheltering of the criminals, but in actual outrages by the government and its minions to date.
The recent killing of Sikhs and usurpation of their right to practice and defend their religious beliefs is latest in the long terrain of violence committed against the Sikh community in India creating an existential threat to Sikhism and its adherent.
In the light of sharp increase in the threat to the peaceful existence of Sikh community by recent extra judicial killing at the hands of Indian Security forces, we urge you to immediately undertake a visit to the state of Punjab where Sikhs are facing persecution for practicing and defending their religion.”
