Two days after Gurudwara attack, a Sikh youth murdered in Pakistan

Two days after the Nankana Sahib Gurudwara in Pakistan’s Punjab province was attacked by a Muslim mob, a member of the Sikh community, Parvinder Singh, was murdered in Peshawar by ‘unknown’ gunmen.

Sources based in Peshawar told IANS that Parvinder Singh was the younger brother of a local journalist Harmeet Singh.

A businessman in Malaysia, Parvinder was in Peshawar to shop for his wedding in February, Harmeet told the media.

Anguished by the murder of his brother, Harmeet added that “without minorities, no country can flourish and progress. Pakistan is beautiful because of minorities but each year, we end up carrying the dead on our shoulders”.

Pakistan, he said, gets massive funds from several countries to protect minorities.

“But there is no protection. That’s why I am here to carry my dead brother’s body today. I won’t rest until the Pakistani government books the murderers of my brother,” he added.

Religious minorities especially Sikhs in Pakistan have already been complaining of insecurity and fear since the attack on the birthplace of Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru.

A Muslim mob led by the family of a man who had abducted and forcibly converted a Sikh girl Jagjit Kaur, pelted stones at Nankana Sahib, trapping Sikh devotees inside the shrine.

While India strongly condemned the attack, both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition led by the Congress protested outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.