VIRGINIA: Washington Post on April 10 carried a news item reporting brawl at a Fairfax County Gurdwarian Virginia. Sixty to 100 people were involved in the fight where fists and stocks were freely used and at the end of it nine people were admitted in hospital for broken ribs or other injuries. The police are still trying to unravel what actually happened in the unrest which issued there.
A press release by the Sikh Foundation of Virginia reports that the incident involved a group of people who targeted key members of the trustees and having first surrounded each these members by groups of four to six people dragged their victims out of the Gurdwara and beat them up mercilessly. A lady trying to protect her semiconscious husband was dragged by her hair and beaten with a wooden staff. The press release also says that tensions had been building up over the previous few months regarding some byelaws of the foundation which permitted a person to be appointed a trustee if he paid $1000 as fee and un annual subscription of S500. The Sikh Foundation of Virginia is very much embarrassed by the fracas which ensued al the religious congregation, they say this is the first time such an unfortunate incident occurred in the history of the Gurdwara and has condemned ik.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 16, 1993
