LAHORE: Indian Foreign Minister Mr. Bali Ram Bhagat lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan government for giving a very lenient treatment to the Sikhs who had beaten up the members of Indian Consul in Lahore.
On November 26, a member of the Indian Consulate was beaten up along with his bodyguard by young Sikhs from Canada for allegedly smoking in the premises of Gurdwara Dehra Sahib that commemorates the place where the fifth Guru Arjan Dev ji was martyred. Lahore police had arrested the Sikh youths who were later bailed out. Mr. Bhagat considered the bailing out of Sikhs as a great concession to Sikhs and an affront to India. He said that Pakistan’s action had given a set back to the process of normalization of relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile to protest the attack on two Indian diplomats in Pakistan, Gurdwara the executive committee of the Hindu Rashtiya Sangathan Punjab today decided to cancel the visit of Hindu Pilgrims to shrines in Jehlum District (Pakistan). In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister the Sangathan President Mr. Surinder Kumar Billa urged the government of India to lodge a strong protest as the attack was made with the connivance of the Pakistan government.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 9, 1988
