New Delhi/Islamabad, January 4: Members of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and the Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday staged a protest near the Pakistan High Commission here over the mob attack on Gurdwara Nankana Sahib.
Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, also known as Gurdwara Janam Asthan, is the site near Lahore in Pakistan where Guru Nanak was born.
On Friday, a violent mob had attacked the gurdwara and pelted it with stones.
The protest by the DSGMC and Akali members was held at around 1 pm near Chanakyapuri, an affluent neighbourhood and diplomatic enclave in the city.
The protestors were raising slogans against Pakistan and Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The Sikh community members claimed that they had submitted a memorandum at the Pakistan High Commission, asking Islamabad to “explain the failure of law-enforcing agencies” in the country.
Gurdwara ‘untouched’, says Pakistan
Pakistan on Friday said the birthplace of founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak remains “untouched and undamaged” and the “claims of destruction” of one of the holiest Sikh shrines are “false”.
The Pakistan Foreign Office in a statement said the provincial authorities in the Punjab province have informed that there was a scuffle in the city of Nankana Sahib on Friday between two Muslim groups.
The altercation happened on a minor incident at a tea stall and the district administration immediately intervened and arrested the accused, it said.
“Attempts to paint this incident as a communal issue are patently motivated. Most importantly, the gurdwara remains untouched and undamaged. All insinuations to the contrary, particularly the claims of acts of ‘desecration and destruction’ and desecration of the holy place, are not only false but also mischievous,” the Foreign Office said.
The Foreign Office statement has come after some reports in the Indian media said that a mob attack had taken place at the shrine. The reports suggested that hundreds of angry residents at Nankana Sahib pelted stones at the Sikh pilgrims on Friday.
Police in Pakistan said on Friday that a group of people, led by the family of a Muslim man who married a Sikh teenager, held a day-long sit-in outside the gurdwara to protest the arrest of their relatives who were held for alleged forced conversion of the girl.
The External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi said on Friday that members of the minority Sikh community in Pakistan were subjected to acts of violence at the holy city of Nankana Sahib.
