A documentary film about Sikhs from Kabul, Afghanistan will be aired on 3/6/12 on Sikh Channel.
“ਸਿੱਖ ਇਨ ਕਾਬੁਲ” ਡੋਕੁਮੰਟਰੀ ਫਿਲਮ ੩ ਜੂਨ ੨੦੧੨ ਨੂ ਸਿੱਖ ਚੈਨਲ ਤੇ ਦਿਖਾਈ ਜਾਵੇਗੀ |
“सिख इन काबुल” डोकुम्न्ट्री फिल्म ३ जून २०१२ को सिख चैनल पर दिखाई जाएगी |
Posted on behalf of
Pritpal Singh
Southall UK
Kulwinder Sandhu, Tribune News Service
Moga, May 20. Kulwant Kaur and her three daughters were attacked with acid while they were sleeping on the courtyard of their house at Saleena village late last night. The victims were rushed to a private hospital by their neighbours. They were shifted to the district hospital here this afternoon.
Kulwant Kaur, in her statement to the police, said the husband of her elder daughter Jaspreet could be behind the attack. She said Jaspreet was married to Jagtar Singh of Mahesri village five years back. The couple had strained ties. “Five days back, Jaspreet fell ill and came to me. She was hospitalised for two days. Jaspreet’s husband asked her to return home but Jaspreet wanted to stay with me for a few more days. This may have provoked him to attack us,” said a distressed Kulwant Kaur.
Surjit Singh Grewal, SSP, said he had asked the SHO concerned to record the statements of the victims and register a case.
Sikhí is a Dharmic tradition, which means that we do not follow an elaborate system of dogmas (things you have to believe in) but we are to follow guidelines that indicate the way we should live our life in order to get nearer to God.
Just believing in One God and One Humanity is not good enough, we should actively practice these beliefs. And when in doubt how to apply these teachings we can look at the clear examples set by our Gurus.
Many Sikhs will say that our dharm is superior to others because of the equality taught and practiced by Guru, and then arrange their children’s marriages according to caste ! Looking down on people with dark skin is common in India and so is treating women as second class citizens, but these are not Sikh practices.
Simran, meditation, thinking about God. Always keeping God in mind should lead to better behaviour towards fellow human beings and towards creation in general. Just sitting in certain postures and endlessly repeating a ‘mantr’ without practising ‘seeing God in all and everything’ is useless.
Repeating words that highlight aspects of God (Vahiguru, Nirankar, Mukandé) or which are generic words pointing to God (Allah, Prabhu, Har) is good practice if it leads to seeing God in all. I personally prefer reading or listening to Gurbaní as a way of thinking about God, but what works for me might not work for you.
The yogi Sikhs devised the brilliant slogan : ‘If you don’t see God in all, you won’t see God at all.‘
Seva, selfless service to all goes together with seeing God in all. Sharing food, money and time with others is good for those you help and good for you. You will only profit from seva if you do it quietly, not seeking publicity for your good deeds. It should also not be done as a way to ‘buy’ favours from God.
Standing up against injustice and oppression as taught by tenth guru is also a form of seva. When we campaign for our right to wear the turban in Belgium we should also include the rights of other communities who equally suffer from bans on the wearing of head cover or the wearing of religious symbols.
Nám, books have been written about the exact meaning of ‘Nám’ in Gurmat, but if you read God for ‘Nám’ you are not far wrong. I tend to think of ‘Nám’ as representing the Godly principle or the Godly essence, while a friend of mine sees it as God’s constitution for her/his creation.
Saint John in the New Testament of the Bible writes : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The biblical notion of ‘Word’ is similar to Nám.
The three first descriptions of God in the Guru Granth Sahib, Ik Ongkar (One Almighty, Omnipresent), Satnám (True Nám), Karta Purkh (Creator Being) represent God who is present in all and the cause of all.
Perneet Singh, Tribune News Service
Amritsar, May 20. Twenty eight years after the Army stormed into the Golden Temple Complex and 10 years after the SGPC first passed a resolution supporting it, the foundation stone of Operation Bluestar Memorial was today finally laid by Sikh high priests in the presence of SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar and Damdami Taksal chief Baba Harnam Singh.
Thousands of activists of various Sikh organisations as well as devotees converged in the Golden Temple Complex for the launch of “kar sewa” of the memorial in the morning. Addressing a gathering on the occasion, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said the memorial had been a long pending demand of the Sikhs and the Sikh leadership was well aware of the community’s sentiments.
Reacting to various organisations’ resentment against handing over “kar sewa” to the Damdami Taksal, he said it was always easy to point fingers but difficult to accomplish a task. He said various Sikh organisations and personalities engaged in “kar sewa” were supporting Baba Harnam Singh in his effort. He appealed to the Sikh Sangat to donate generously for the construction of the memorial.
Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh also justified the SGPC move to give “kar sewa” to Baba Harnam Singh. He cautioned the community to donate funds for the memorial only to Baba Harnam Singh and to no one else. “We have neither set up any ‘golak’ nor authorised anyone to collect funds for the purpose,” he said.
Later, Makkar and Sikh high priests presented a ‘siropa’ to Baba Harnam Singh. The Sikh clergy, Makkar and Baba Harnam Singh laid the foundation stone of the memorial around 10 am. The funds for the memorial started flowing in even before the foundation stone was laid. A list of donors was read out at the ceremony. Kamaldeep Kaur, whose brother Balwant Singh Rajoana is on death row in the Beant Singh assassination case, also donated Rs 1 lakh.
To read the full story :
He had tracked irregular land allotments by BEML Cooperation Society, among others
Staff Reporter
Bamgalore, 20 May 2012. Five days after a murderous attack by unknown assailants in the heart of Bangalore, S.P. Mahantesh, 48, an auditor and whistleblower on irregular land allotments in the State, died of his injuries.
Doctors at the private hospital where he was treated said his heart stopped beating at 5.30 a.m. on Sunday.
Mahantesh is survived by his wife, two children and ailing parents.
Known as an honest officer in a department plagued by allegations of corruption and land scams, Mahantesh, a Karnataka Administrative Service officer and Deputy Director of Cooperative Audit, was a crucial source for some of the stories that The Hindu published in recent months on irregularities in housing societies.
Less than a fortnight ago, he facilitated (for The Hindu) the release of a copy of the audit report of the controversial BEML Employees’ Cooperative Society, which is accused of making improper land allotments to several influential persons.
Gowda’s assurance
Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who visited the grieving family members, assured them that the culprits would be arrested soon. He did not, however, announce any compensation.
Mahantesh’s death comes as a setback to the police who have been struggling for a breakthrough for the want of an eyewitness. “Had it been possible to revive him, he could have given us vital clues,” DCP (Central Division) B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda told reporters.
Two more teams
He said two more special teams had been formed to solve the case, besides the two teams that had been formed earlier. “We are working from multiple angles at the moment. Things are open ended.”
In fact, on the night of May 15 when he was attacked, Mahantesh was returning after an audit-related meeting with the office-bearers of the Sahakarnagar Credit Cooperative Society, his colleagues revealed.
“He was not auditing any high-profile society. The irregularities in these societies were not of such a nature or scale as to motivate somebody to kill him,” Mr. Ravikanthe Gowda said.
Mahantesh’s brother-in-law, Nagarudrappa, expressed outrage at some media reports that had quoted anonymous police sources as saying the attack was motivated by personal enmity. “We are convinced that he was attacked for the good work he was doing.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article3438966.ece?homepage=true
On the 19th of April I went to Vilvoorde and on the 20th I travelled from Vilvoorde to Bristol via Brussel and London. I returned from Bristol to Sint-Truiden on the 25th of April.
21 April, River Avon, Bristol Floating Harbour
21 April, River Avon, Bristol Floating Harbour
21 April, River Avon, Bristol Floating Harbour
21 April, River Avon, Bristol Steam Railway
To see more UK pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157627296796095/
More UK pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, May 20. Annoyed with the “lousy” probe by the Jagraon police into the death of his brother and Canada-based NRI Amanpal, Tajinder Singh has decided to return to Canada.
Tajinder had recently contradicted the police theory of suicide by his brother and claimed that the latter was murdered and his body was thrown into a canal. He said he was facing a tough time for getting magisterial permission for DNA sample.
He alleged that Jagraon police officials kept asking him about his return to Canada. “I think the police is in a hurry to close the case. Such queries are very discouraging. I am here to seek justice, but I am disillusioned due to the negative attitude of the police,” said Tajinder.
Peshawar, May 20: Moving beyond the vague and clichéd 3-D strategy, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has come up with a plan which officials and cabinet ministers say could well serve as the first comprehensive state response to overcome militancy.
The 24-page presentation “Continuing Militancy, Challenge & Response”, unveiled at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti early this month envisages a full state response in terms of governance, deliverance and coordination to overcome the challenges from non-state actors.
“We have to acknowledge that there is a deep-set malaise that will not be cured by a single dose of anti-biotic. We need an aggressive; multiple doses of medication to attack the malaise from all sides,” Secretary Home, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azam Khan, told Dawn.
Mr Khan declined to go into the specifics of the plan he helped conceive but a cabinet minister said that was the most comprehensive strategy he had seen since the ANP-led coalition took office in 2008.
Acknowledging the ideological, material linkages between the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistani militants in bordering tribal regions, the report dispelled an impression that militancy in Pakistan would cease once foreign troops left Afghanistan. “It will not happen,” the report said.
Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain concurred. “The pot will continue to boil long after the fire is put out,” he remarked. “We are facing a well-trained, battle-hardened and indoctrinated and battle-inoculated nemesis,” he said in an interview.
“To defeat them, you need a full state response and not just the use of a mighty force. The militants have ambitions and they have objectives. Force alone is not the answer. All state institutions and departments will have to stand up to the occasion and response by contributing to the strategy,” Mr Hussain said.
The cabinet was warned that if and when foreign troops left Afghanistan, the sense of victory among the Taliban in Afghanistan would galvanise and embolden the militants on this side of the border to take on the Pakistani state.
A Taliban-dominated Afghanistan, the participants were told, would serve as the strategic depth for the Pakistani militants, with their Afghan allies morally-bound to support them in their bid to impose their brand of shariah in Pakistan.
“The successful tactics that helped Afghan Taliban to fight the Afghan state would be replicated by Pakistani militants against Pakistan,” they were told.
Highlighting Taliban tactics, the paper likened them to termite that eats the structure from within.
“In the power consolidation phase, they let the super structure remain while going the termite way,” the cabinet was told.
This, they were told, was done by creating social space by guaranteeing security through conflict resolution and quick dispensation of justice and execution; targeting political and tribal elders, targeting public opinion makers, creating terror and targeting law-enforces.
Just in the first three months this year, the cabinet was informed, 139 law-enforces were targeted. Compared with that, militants’ known and registered casualties (dead and wounded) stood at 45 from January to April, 25.Likewise, from February 2010 to August 2011, militants beheaded a total of 47 opponents in North Waziristan alone, the cabinet heard in total shock.
The militants, they were told, had a propaganda wing, a religious wing, a political cell and training and espionage networks.
“In short, all wings of militants structure work towards a common goal to ultimately capture power in a well-coordinated, well-organised, cool and calculated manner,” the cabinet was told.
“As for our response; it’s business as usual, where the right hand knows not what the left hand is doing,” a participant quoted from the presentation.
Intelligence penetration, it said, lacked depth, despite Pakistan being in a state of war for over 10 years, while law-enforcement agencies lacked training, the weaponry and orientation to fight an unconventional war.
Moving beyond the 3-D (Development, Deterrence and Dialogue), a cliché term that lacked clarity, coined by former president General Musharraf, the KP cabinet was told that it would take more than just law-enforcement to root out militancy.
All state institutions and government departments would have to respond in a concerted and coordinated manner, it said.
Emphasising that Pakistan needed to learn from other nations on how to deal with militancy; it would also have to make an effort to squeeze finances to militant organisations and mobilise all government departments to gear up their effort in drawing up plans to defeat militants.
The presentation then set out to identify a set of measures that could be taken by the departments of social welfare, Auqaf & religious affairs, information, education, home & tribal affairs, law and justice, revenue, police and the Frontier Constabulary, intelligence and the prosecution to respond in a holistic manner to the challenge.
“To win the war, the government has to show a better face to the people,” the cabinet was told.
Summing up, the cabinet was told that the catch in the whole plan was its implementation. “This is just a pointer,” the cabinet was told.
“Improve it, approve it, assign specific tasks, set time lines, gauge performances against clear benchmarks and go for performance accountability as failure is not an option,” it concluded.
The cabinet approved the recommendations made in the presentation and issued directives to all departments concerned to follow through and implement the plan.
“Minutes of the cabinet meeting have been issued,” a senior government official said. “The ball has started rolling, let’s see where it stops,” a PPP minister in the KP cabinet remarked. “It is a good plan but consistency, perseverance, implementation and accountability are not something we are known for,” the minister said.
http://dawn.com/2012/05/21/new-khyber-pakhtunkhwa-strategy-to-eradicate-militancy/
