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Thursday March 28, 2024

Man involved in Sikh community leader’s murder arrested: police

By Javed Aziz Khan
June 15, 2018

PESHAWAR: The Counter Terrorism Department of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police on Thursday arrested an alleged assassin involved in the murder of Sikh community leader Charanjeet Singh, an official said on Thursday.

“The CTD has arrested a target killer Shehryar from the Kohat Road who was involved in the murder of Charanjeet Singh in the Scheme Chowk.

The accused is being interrogated,” an official of the CTD said on Thursday. The accused belongs to southern villages of Peshawar. “He has disclosed the names of his accomplices. Special teams have been constituted to arrest them,” said the official.

Charanjeet Singh, in his late 40s, was shot dead by unidentified armed men in his grocery store at the Scheme Chowk on the Kohat Road two weeks back.

Armed men opened fire on Charanjeet Singh outside his shop in the afternoon and then made good their escape. He was shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital but succumbed to his injuries on the way.

Charanjeet had been running the shop for 30 years. He had no enmity, locals said.

The Sikh community held a number of meetings with the top government officials and policemen to get the killer arrested.

A meeting of the elders was held a couple of days back with the caretaker chief minister KP Justice (r) Dost Mohammad Khan.

“We are thankful to the government and police for the arrest of the killer of Charanjeet and hope that he will be awarded exemplary punishment,” said Gurpal Singh, another Sikh community leader.

He said Charanjeet Singh was an active member of various organizations promoting interfaith harmony. “Unfortunately those working for interfaith harmony like Sardar Soran Singh and Charanjeet Singh don’t live for long. Such people need to be given protection,” said Gurpal Singh.

Sardar Soran Singh was an adviser to the chief minister on minority affairs when he was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in his native Buner district. He was an active leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

While demanding security for his community, Gurpal Singh said one of his brothers and some other members of the community were killed in attacks by unidentified men in recent years. The killing of Charanjeet Singh, however, is the first attack on Sikhs in Peshawar in the last almost four years.

In the last incident in 2014, one Jagmohan Singh was killed while Bahram Singh and

Manmit Singh were wounded when they were attacked at their shops in the Shabab market in Peshawar’s Hashtnagri locality.

Sikhs in Peshawar enjoy cordial relations with the local Muslims since they have been living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata for years.

The Sikh community during Ramazan daily arranges Iftar for Muslims in different parts of Peshawar. Most Sikhs in the city are doing business and some are practitioners of traditional medicine.