CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) urged Sikhs in the US and BJP leaders to address the issue of Sikh youths’ turbans being tossed into dustbins during deportations, calling it a serious matter requiring urgent intervention.
Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said that it was shocking that turbans of Sikh Youth were tossed and thrown in dustbins by US Police officials while making them board US deportation flights for India. He said this was a serious human rights violation. He further said that even vegetarian youth were forced to eat beef during their detention.
Majithia even expressed his sorrow over the youths being handcuffed and chained, and the inhumane treatment they had to endure throughout the journey. He stressed that this act demanded immediate global condemnation.
He urged Sikh leaders from the BJP to raise the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked whether the Prime Minister would take this up with US President Donald Trump, whom he claimed as a "good friend".
He also asked the Sikh leaders of the USA to take this issue up with Trump. He asserted that India should not remain silent to humiliation with their citizens abroad. “The country must stand up for the dignity and rights of its citizens”, he added.
A 21-year-old deportee, Davinder Singh, earlier alleged that officials discarded the turbans of Sikh immigrants, throwing them into trash bins when they were detained by US security officials after crossing the border illegally and subsequently sent to a detention centre. “It was deeply painful to see turbans being tossed away like garbage,” he had said.
Singh had said they were only given a small packet of chips and a packet of juice five times a day. Apart from that, they received a roll of half-cooked bread, half-cooked rice, sweet corn, and cucumber. Since Davinder is a vegetarian, he could not eat beef.
Sources said that some 24 Sikh deportees were made to remove their turbans by the US authorities before sending them back to India on a military plane. They were part of a second batch of Indians that landed at the Amritsar airport.
Meanwhile, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had condemned the US authorities for being “insensitive” to the community’s religious sentiments.