New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday staged a protest at the Jammu and Kashmir House here against the ‘atrocities’ on Sikhs in the border state and demanded protection for them.
The members of the Sikh cell of the Delhi BJP, led by the party’s city unit chief Vijendra Gupta, accused the central government of not being serious on the issue and said the honour of the community should be protected.
The agitators also submitted a memorandum addressed to the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, demanding protection of life, property and prestige of the Sikhs in the state.
Sikhs in the valley have been feeling unsafe after they received anonymous letters asking them to embrace Islam or face dire consequences.
A majority of the Muslim community and its mainstream and separatist leadership in the valley have described the letters as the ‘handiwork of miscreants’.
The issue had created an uproar in both houses of parliament Friday.
‘Let the house be assured that the state and centre are working together and Sikhs will be protected,’ Home Minister P. Chidambaram had said in the Rajya Sabha after the uproar.
The 60,000-strong Sikh community is the single largest minority group in the valley after Hindus fled in the early 1990s when an armed separatist conflict backed by Pakistan erupted in Jammu and Kashmir
