Sikhs call for probe after North Carolina Gurdwara vandalised
Darpan News Desk IANS, 30 Jan, 2023 12:49 PM
New York, Jan 30 (IANS) A recent string of attacks by vandals on a Sikh temple in the US has left the community worried with leaders asking for a thorough investigation into the incidents.
In various incidents over the last two months, the windows, lights and security cameras of Gurdwara Sahib Khalsa Darbar on East Arrowood Road in Charlotte, North Carolina, were shattered and damaged, local media reported.
"It's shocking for us to experience things like this. We're a small community in Charlotte..." Ajay Singh, a Sikh community member told the Charlotte Observer.
According to the 2021 American Community Survey, there are roughly 6,900 Sikhs out of 10.5 million people across North Carolina.
Singh said acts of vandalism at the Gurdwara started last fall with trash being thrown around the area.
"On January 3, a window near the worship room was destroyed. Two days later, a window was broken near a room for children," he said.
According to the Observer, Gurdwara members had filed a police report but Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police denied there were any between December 1 and January 13. Police did not respond to a Charlotte Observer inquiry on whether there was an active investigation there.
"We really need law enforcement to step up," Pawanjit Singh, a member of the Gurdwara, told Charlotte Observer. "They need to find who is doing this and why they are doing this."
Pawanjit Singh further said that no one was present at the gurdwara when the acts occurred, and the motive of attack remains unknown.
"Ninety per cent of police officers probably do not know who Sikhs are," he said. "When they don't know they can't relate to what an act of vandalism at a Sikh temple means."
The community leaders have set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of the damages and install a safety fence and a gate. Apart from being a place of worship, the gurdwara runs a school attended by more than 40 children, and provides community meals, Punjabi language, leadership, and music classes.
Former Delhi University professor Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, who was sentenced to death by a special court but later acquitted by the Supreme Court in the 2001 Parliament attack case, died here on Thursday following a cardiac arrest, his family said.
All pilgrims will have to register online (prakashpurb550.mha.gov.in) in advance and the applicant is required to register himself/herself in advance of proposed date of travel.
An Indian couple in Singapore are facing charges of trafficking for exploiting a group of Bangladeshi women employed at their night clubs, allegedly denying them monthly wages, confiscating their passports and forcing one of them into prostitution.
An Indian-origin dentist has been banned from practising dentistry for a year after one of his patients bled to death, hours after he had extracted her teeth in a procedure over two years ago.
A video clip of students of a college in Karnataka writing exams on Wednesday with cartons over their head has gone viral on social media drawing criticism and prompting the education minister to tweet that the incident will be 'dealt with aptly'.
