Thousands of Sikhs protest over maltreatment in India

LONDON: Thousands of Sikhs from across the UK took part in a huge protest in Parliament Square here and called on the British Prime Minister David Cameron to stand up to Indian and demand the release of thousands of political prisoners who have been imprisoned illegally.
The protest coincided with the last Prime Minister’s Questions before the recess. Several Sikh organisations helped organise the protest which was aimed at showing solidarity with Sikhs and others in India who whose human rights are violated by the Indian government.
Hundreds of Sikhs lobbied inside with the parliament with their local MPs while thousands protested outside. The marchers then moved on to the US Embassy in London to beg attention of the US administration as several US national human rights activists have also been detained and jailed.
They demanded that the UK government should answer what its role has been and what it has done in the last few months to raise concerns about the plight of Sikh political prisoners in Indian jails. Hundreds of Sikh prisoners have been in prison for decades and most are in the sixties and seventies and should be released given their impeccable behaviour and on humanitarian grounds.
The matter is so serious and so close to the hearts if millions of Sikhs that a US citizen Bapu Surat Singh, who is 83-year-old, has been on hunger strike in India for over 6 months. He is only surviving as he has been detained and force fed. His son a US citizen was detained by police for two months and tortured when he went to see his father in hospital, said the protestors. Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were asked to urgently take up the issue of the release of Sikh political prisoners in Indian jails who have completed the terms of their sentence. But we have had no answers. It is a sad reflection that the present UK Government is turning a blind eye to human rights violations of minorities in India fearing various trade deals could be jeopardised.
Several protestors said that Indian media was not free and not allowed to cover the plight of minorities in India. They said that there Sikhs face complete “media blackout” and this was being done by the majority of Hindu establishment which doesn’t believe in the empowerment of Sikhs and other minorities. Several protestors narrated how they were arrested and detained illegally during their visits to India. One of them said that he was detained and a fake case registered against him which was cleared after an expensive three years London struggle.