India on Thursday strongly condemned the recent incident in which Pakistan’s first Sikh police officer, Gulab Singh Shaheen was forcibly evicted from his house in a village near Lahore along with his children and wife and asked Islamabad to honestly inquire into it.
“This is not the first time that religious minorities have been targeted in Pakistan. Not only Sikhs but people belonging to other minority groups are also being targeted,’’ External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told press persons while drawing attention to the recent killing of a Sikh in the neighbouring country.
Pakistan must fulfil its international obligation of protecting religious minorities in the country, he added.
Shaheen was quoted as saying in the Pakistani media that he was evicted by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), the parent body of the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC), from his house in Lahore’s Dera Chahal, which is situated about 28 km from Lahore, on Tuesday. “My turban was forced open and hair was untied,” he said in one of the videos he shared on facebook
In another video, he can be seen pleading with police to give him “at least 10 minutes” to be in the place where he and his family have been staying since 1947. He later told the media that ETPB Secretary Tariq Wazir had thrashed him.