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 counsel in Lahore.

On November 26, a member of the Indian counsel was beaten up along with his bodyguard by young Sikhs from Canada for allegedly smoking in the premises of Gurdwara Dehra Sahib 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 countries. Meanwhile to protest the attack on two Indian diplomats in an in Pakistan, Gurdwara the executive committee of the Hindu Reashtrya 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 6, 1985