BBC News – Three US soldiers killed in Afghanistan blast

Tuesday, 14 May 2013. Three US soldiers with the Nato-led force in Afghanistan have been killed by a roadside bomb, officials say.

A government spokesman in the southern province of Kandahar said the soldiers were in a convoy in Zhari district. Several others were reported wounded.

Taliban insurgents announced the start of their spring offensive in March.

This is the latest of a series of attacks this month on international troops, who are due to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Some 100,000 soldiers are still serving with the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in the country.

Hostages freed

“We can confirm that three soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan today (Tuesday),” Isaf spokesman Maj Bryan Purtell was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The spokesman added that the earlier death toll of four had been revised down and a recovery operation was taking place at the scene.

The coalition and local Afghan officials confirmed that all the victims were Americans.

On Monday, three Georgian soldiers serving with the Nato-led Isaf force died in an attack in the neighbouring province of Helmand.

On 1 May, three British soldiers died in a roadside bomb blast. Three days later, seven Isaf soldiers were killed in separate attacks.

In another development, the Taliban is reported to have freed the last four of eight Turkish civilians who were seized in April.

The Turks were in a group of 11 people captured in eastern Logar province when their helicopter was forced to land in bad weather.

The fate of two pilots, from Russia and Kyrgyzstan, and an Afghan translator remains unclear.

On Monday, Reuters quoted the Taliban as saying that the three captives were still alive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22529417

Dawn – Nawaz wants to end mistrust with India, boost ties with US

Lahore, 13 May 2013. Nawaz Sharif, poised to become prime minister for a third time after a decisive victory in the elections, said on Monday that the mistrust which had long dogged relations with India needed to be addressed.

He also pledged to strengthen relations with the United States, but called its drone campaign in Pakistan’s tribal region a challenge to national sovereignty.

Mr Sharif said he had a “long chat” with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday and both of them extended invitation to each other to visit, a diplomatic nicety in some parts of the world, but a heavily symbolic step for South Asia’s arch-enemies.

Asked by an Indian journalist if he would invite Mr Singh for his swearing-in as prime minister, he said he would be very happy to extend that invitation.

“There are fears on your side; there are fears on our side. We have to seriously address this,” Mr Sharif said while speaking to the foreign media at his palatial estate outside Lahore.

A supporter of free market policy, he wants to see trade between the two countries unshackled, and he has a history of making conciliatory gestures towards New Delhi.

In 1999, when he was prime minister, Mr Sharif stood at the frontier post waiting to welcome his counterpart, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to arrive on the inaugural run of a bus service between New Delhi and Lahore.

It was a moment of high hope for two countries that had gone to war three times in the preceding decades.

But by May of that year, the two sides were sucked into a new conflict as then army chief Pervez Musharraf sent forces across the line dividing Kashmir. And by October, Mr Sharif had been ousted by General Musharraf in a bloodless coup.

Mr Sharif’s return to power 14 years later has raised concern that he will again cross swords with the military, which has long controlled the country’s foreign and security policies.

Mr Sharif sought to play down his perceived enmity towards the army, saying he only blamed General Musharraf for the coup, not the entire service. “I think the rest of the army resented General Musharraf’s decision,” he said.

“So I don’t hold the rest of the army responsible for that.”

He said that as prime minister he would ensure that the military and the civilian government work together on the myriad problems facing the country. In an ironic twist, General Musharraf is currently under house arrest after returning from self-imposed exile, and Mr Sharif will need to decide whether to press treason charges against him in the Supreme Court.

Open to like-minded allies

Mr Sharif said his PML-N won enough of the 272 National Assembly seats to rule on its own, but suggested he was open to allies joining his government.

“I am not against any coalition. But as far as Islamabad is concerned, we are ourselves in a position to form our own government,” he said. “All those who share our vision, we will be happy to work with them.”

Mr Sharif’s biggest challenges are likely to be closer to home — fixing the shattered economy, ending an appalling energy crisis, coping with poverty and tackling a Taliban insurgency.

Another bailout from the International Monetary Fund to avoid a new balance of payments crisis is seen as inevitable.

Mr Sharif suggested that he would be willing to implement politically sensitive reforms to secure an IMF lifeline.

He has picked Senator Ishaq Dar as his finance minister in the new cabinet, a party spokesman said on Monday. Mr Dar had “all the facts and figures at his fingertips” and would present in June the budget for the next financial year, Siddiqul Farooq said.

Mr Dar, who served as finance minister in a previous cabinet of Mr Sharif in the 1990s, has said he plans to push provincial governments to collect agricultural taxes, a policy that can set him on a collision course with some of the PML-N’s wealthy backers.

US war against terrorism, drone attacks

Mr Sharif said ahead of the election that Pakistan should reconsider its support for the US war against terrorism and suggested he was in favour of negotiations with the Taliban.

As prime minister-elect, Mr Sharif chose his words carefully on Monday, saying Islamabad and Washington have “good relations” and “need to listen to each other”.

Asked about US drone strikes against militants on Pakistani soil, which many see as a violation of sovereignty, he referred to it as a “challenge” to sovereignty.

“We will sit with our American friends and talk to them about this issue,” he said.

“Of course we have taken this matter up very seriously. I think this is a very serious issue, and our concern must be understood properly.”

The CIA’s drone campaign targeting Al Qaeda and other militants has been extremely controversial in Pakistan, where people say it frequently kills innocent civilians — something Washington denies — and that it violates Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Mr Sharif promised Pakistan’s “full support” as the United States withdraws combat troops from Afghanistan next year. “If there are concerns on either side I think we should address those concerns and strengthen this relationship.”

http://beta.dawn.com/news/1011175/nawaz-wants-to-end-mistrust-with-india-boost-ties-with-us

The Sikh Coalition – 82-Year-Old Man Severely Beaten with Iron Bar; Community Urged to Attend Meeting Tonight at Local Gurdwara

Fremont, California, 7 May 2013. According to local media reports, Mr. Piara Singh, an 82 year-old Sikh man, was severely beaten on Sunday, May 5, 2013 with an iron bar outside of Gurdwara Nanaksar Sahib in Fresno, California.  Mr. Singh sustained significant injuries, including head injuries, broken bones and ribs, and a collapsed lung.  The suspect was apprehended at the scene of the crime and is currently in custody.  Law enforcement is investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.

Mr. Singh remains in the hospital in serious condition.  The local Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Fresno Police Department will thoroughly investigate the attack and are convening a community meeting tonight at Gurdwara Nanaksar Sahib to provide an update on the incident.  We urge community members in the area to attend and join the Sikh Coalition and the local sangat in providing support to Piara Singh and his family:

Community Meeting with Law Enforcement and Media
Time/Date: May 7, 2013, 5:30 PM PST
Gurdwara Nanaksar Sahib
3060 S. Cherry Avenue
Fresno, California 93706

The Sikh Coalition applauds Mr. Singh’s family and the Fresno community for its immediate and comprehensive response to the attack. Within hours, the family and community engaged with media, law enforcement, the FBI and Department of Justice, and the Sikh Coalition.  We remain in direct touch with the family, the local sangat, and law enforcement; pray for Mr. Singh’s full and speedy recovery; and will provide updates as the situation progresses.

As always, we urge all Sikhs to practice their faith fearlessly.  If you or someone you know ever experiences violence or even a threat of violence, please report the incident to your local police department immediately by dialing 9-1-1.

The Sikh Coalition
50 Broad St., Ste. 1537
New York, NY 10004
T 212.655.3095
www.sikhcoalition.org

BBC News – US announces Burma sanctions move

Friday, 3 May 2013. The US has extended targeted sanctions against Burma for another year but lifted a visa ban on officials.

The State Department said the move both rewarded progress and aimed to prevent backsliding on reform.

It cited human rights concerns and the continued detention of political prisoners as factors in extending the annual sanctions order.

Last month the European Union lifted the last of its non-military sanctions on Burma.

The US has already lifted most trade and investment sanctions against Burma amid a series of reforms in the South East Asian nation.

The State Department said the latest moves both acknowledged the important changes that had been made in Burma and the challenges that remained.

Extending the sanctions order would “maintain the flexibility necessary to target specific bad actors and prevent backsliding on reform”, a department official said in a briefing.

It would allow for targeted restrictions against doing business with companies or individuals who “slow or thwart reform in Burma, commit serious human rights abuses or propagate military trade with North Korea”.

But a 1996 visa blanket ban that targeted officials from the former military regime and their families was terminated, the State Department said.

Unrest challenge

Since being elected in November 2010, the civilian administration of President Thein Sein has freed many political prisoners and relaxed censorship.

It has begun to work with the Aung San Suu Kyi-led opposition, which now has a small presence in parliament after by-elections deemed free and fair.

But controlling anti-Muslim violence that has erupted in a number of places has proved a challenge for the government. Fighting has also taken place in the north of the country with Kachin rebels and a number of political prisoners remain in jail.

Earlier this week, more anti-Muslim violence erupted north of Rangoon, leaving one person dead and dozens of houses razed. It followed violence in April in the centre of the country that left more than 40 people dead.

The recent clashes follow more widespread unrest between Buddhists and mostly Rohingya Muslims last year in Rakhine state, where two outbreaks of violence left about 200 people dead and up to 100,000 people – mostly Muslims – displaced.

In Indonesia, security was tightened around the Burmese embassy and ambassador’s house in Jakarta after two men suspected of plotting a bomb attack were arrested.

Boy Rafli Amar, Indonesia’s police spokesman, said that for the time being police still were not sure whether the embassy was indeed the target and were still investigating.

Five pipe bombs and explosive materials were found at the suspects’ rented house, police said.

Many Indonesians have expressed sympathy for Burma’s Rohingya Muslims, some of whom have found their way to Indonesia, living in detention centres until the government decides what to do with them, reports the BBC’s Karishma Vaswani from Jakarta.

A rally on the issue was due to take place outside the embassy on Friday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22393696

The Hindu – Rajiv Gandhi was ‘entrepreneur’ for Swedish jet, U.S. cable says

Revelation contained in Kissinger-era documents obtained by WikiLeaks

Murali N. Krishnaswamy

Chennai, 8 April 2013. Much before he became Prime Minister, during his years as an Indian Airlines pilot, Rajiv Gandhi may have been a middleman for the Swedish company Saab-Scania, when it was trying to sell its Viggen fighter aircraft to India in the 1970s.

The astonishing revelation that he was the “main Indian negotiator” for a massive aircraft deal for which his “family” connections were seen as valuable, is contained in the Kissinger Cables, the latest tranche of U.S diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and accessed by The Hindu as part of an investigative collaboration. The cables will be released on Monday.

The British SEPECAT Jaguar eventually won the race, from which Saab was forced to withdraw by the U.S.

Rajiv Gandhi, who kept away from politics until he was pushed into it by his mother Indira after the death of his brother Sanjay in 1980, came into public life with a squeaky clean image. Years later, a controversy over bribes paid in another military deal with a different Swedish company, Bofors, was to lead to Rajiv’s and the Congress’s defeat in the 1989 elections.

A series of 41 cables between 1974 and 1976 give glimpses into the “fighter sweepstakes” in India, with one wryly observing that the Swedish company had “understood the importance of family influences in the final decision in the fighter sweepstakes.”

Dassault, the French aircraft maker, too had figured this out. According to the cable, their negotiator for the Mirage fighter aircraft was the son-in-law of Air Marshal O.P. Mehra, then Air Chief.

An October 21, 1975 cable from the New Delhi U.S. Embassy (1975NEWDE14031_b, confidential) details information given to it by a diplomat in the Swedish Embassy. “Mrs Gandhi’s oler [sic] son’s only association with the aircraft industry (to our knowledge) has been as a pilot for Indian Airlines and this is the first time we have heard his name as entrepreneur.”

Having noted what the Swedes had said, the cable makes the comment that there was no additional information to either refute or confirm the information.

The cable goes on to say, “Mrs Gandhi (according to the Swedish info) has made the personal decision not to purchase the British Jaguar because of her prejudices against the British. The decision would be between the Mirage [Dassault Mirage F1] and the Viggen.”

Importance of ‘family’

In another cable (1976NEWDE01909_b, confidential), the Swedes also made it clear they “understood the importance of family influences” in the final decision. The cable adds: “Our colleague describes Ranjiv Gandhi [sic] in flattering terms, and contends his technical expertise is of a high level. This may or may not be. Offhand, we would have thought a transport pilot [is] not the best expert to rely upon in evaluating a fighter plane, but then we are speaking of a transport pilot who has another and perhaps more relevant qualification.”

The first cable adds that Air Marshal Mehra’s son-in-law was the chief negotiator for the competing Mirage, but it does not give his name.

Contacted in New Delhi, Navin Behl, the former Air Chief’s son-in-law, denied that he was ever involved in any such negotiations. “I was never an arms dealer. We’ve got nothing to do with it. I am a chartered accountant, [I was] practising then [in the 1970s], and now we’re in the manufacture and export of home furnishings,” he told The Hindu.

The Swedish diplomat quoted in this cable said his country’s neutral position in world politics was offsetting the Viggen’s higher cost. The cable also records the official’s “irritation at the way Mrs Gandhi is personally dominating negotiations, without [the] involvement of Indian Air Force officers. According to him, negotiations with the Swedes are for 50 Viggen aircraft to be delivered at $4-5 million per aircraft with the Swedes believing that the Indians have made the decision not to purchase any more Soviet military aircraft.”

U.S. blocks deal

But Sweden had to do an abrupt about turn with what appears to be a bit of arm-twisting. An August 6, 1976 cable (1976STOCKH04230_b, secret) titled “Saab-Scania requests for U.S. permission to export Viggen and license to India” appears to confirm this with a blunt message: “The USG, after careful consideration, has concluded that no version of the Viggen containing any classified U.S. components would be acceptable for transfer to India. It would also oppose any transfer to India, for local production, of the advanced U.S. technology represented in the Viggen’s
aerodynamic design, engine and flying controls, navigation system, electronic components and weapons systems.”

Another 1976 cable (1976STOCKH04231_b, secret) details the negative USG response to Saab-Scania president Curt Mileikowsky’s informal request for export of Viggen aircraft to India and licence to manufacture such aircraft to India. Senior Swedish officials have also emphasised “that [the] most important consideration to their government was preservation of cooperation with the U.S. on military R&D, which they recognised as vital to maintenance of a viable Swedish defence effort and that the sale of the Viggen to India was of secondary consideration to them in comparison with the value of military cooperation with the U.S.”

Scramble for contract

The earliest reference to the IAF upgrade plan is in a 1974 cable (1974LONDON00554_b, secret), which elaborates how the Indians had nearly completed negotiations for two Navy Corvettes and an unspecified number of Jaguar aircraft, though negotiations temporarily stalled because of the oil crisis.

India, according to the FCO South Asian Department head, had “expressed desire for [a] modest alternative to the Soviets as an arms supply source, and had begun discussions with the British early last summer.” The British were smelling a deal “in the neighbourhood of 30-35 million pounds, probably only the first tranche of an ongoing program which could reach 100-120 million pounds over a period of time.”

The Viggen pitch to India was of immense interest to the U.S. As one cable (1975STATE270066_b, secret) said, the aircraft “contains a large number of parts and components of U.S. origin which are therefore subject to USG control in third-party sales.”

Jaguar, meanwhile, was aggressively in the hunt. A November 19, 1975 cable (1975NEWDE15350_b, confidential), said: “London has now decided to offer the Government Of India a more favorable financing arrangement, 71/4 percent over five years, than was earlier the case. The GOI has asked for two percent over 15 years, but the British tell us this is impossible. The GOI still wants 40 aircraft to be delivered within 36 months. The original British offer was 60 months, but they are now talking in terms of 40 odd months.” The cable ends by saying that the final decision was expected to be political and made by the Prime Minister.

Another cable (1975PARIS33184_b confidential) details French concern that “Mrs Gandhi’s advance toward dictatorship is now irreversible, and that French Prime Minister Chirac was unhappy with the idea of appearing to condone this development through his official visit” but also nursed the hope that the visit would be able to improve sales prospects for the Mirage F-1.

By the next year, the French Embassy is convinced (1976NEWDE00845_b, confidential) that it is Prime Minister [Indira] Gandhi alone who will make the final decision, and it will be on political grounds. The Swedes are also pushing their product. The French believed that the Swedes had dropped their price and offered to take rupees in payment.

They were seen as moving towards delivering the first 24 to 36 aircraft to India, with the next aircraft being assembled in India under licence.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/rajiv-gandhi-was-entrepreneur-for-swedish-jet-us-cable-says/article4592091.ece

The Tribune – Pakistan ‘secret’ drone deal with US: Keep off camps training Kashmiri militants

New York, April 7. In a secret deal, Pakistan allowed American drone strikes on its soil on the condition that the unmanned aircraft would stay away from its nuclear facilities and the mountain camps where Kashmiri militants were trained for attacks in India, said a media report.

Under secret negotiations between Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and America’s CIA during 2004, the terms of the bargain were set, the New York Times reported today.

“Pakistani intel officials insisted that drones fly only in narrow parts of the tribal areas — ensuring that they would not venture where Islamabad did not want the Americans going: Pakistan’s nuclear facilities, and mountain camps where Kashmiri militants were trained for attacks in India,” the paper said.

The “secret deal” over drone strikes was reached after CIA agreed to kill tribal warlord Nek Muhammad, a Pakistani ally of the Afghan Taliban who led a rebellion and was marked by Islamabad as an “enemy of the state,” the NYT reported, citing an excerpt from the book ‘The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth’.

A CIA official had met the then ISI chief Ehsan-ul Haq with the offer that if it killed Muhammad, “would the ISI allow regular armed drone flights over the tribal areas,” the report said.

The ISI and the CIA also agreed that all drone flights in Pakistan would operate under the American agency’s “covert action authority”, which meant that the US would never acknowledge the missile strikes and that Pakistan would either take credit for the individual killings or remain silent.

While Pakistani officials had in the past considered drone flights a violation of sovereignty, it was Muhammad’s rise to power that forced them to reconsider their line of thought and eventually allow predator drones. (PTI)

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130408/main4.htm

BBC News – Afghan children ‘killed by Nato air strike in Shigal’

Sunday, 7 April 2013. Eleven children have been killed in a Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan, officials and witnesses say.

At least one woman was reportedly killed and a further six are believed to have been injured in the incident in Shigal district, Kunar province.

Nato confirmed that “fire support” was used in Shigal after a US civilian adviser died in a militant attack, but said it had no reports of deaths.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings.

A statement issued by his office said he had already issued a decree banning aerial attacks on civilian areas.

Villagers and officials told the BBC that the casualties were inside their homes when they died.

Photographs apparently sent from the scene to international news agencies appeared to show the bodies of several dead young children, surrounded by Afghan villagers.

A local official said eight Taliban insurgents had also died in the air strike on Saturday, which is reported to have caused the roofs of several houses in three villages to collapse.

He said the strikes were called in to support a major operation by US and Afghan government forces targeting senior Taliban commanders and a local weapons cache.

Tribal elder Haji Malika Jan told the BBC: “The fighting started yesterday morning [Saturday] and continued for at least seven hours. There were heavy exchanges between both sides.

“The area is very close to the Pakistani border and there are hundreds of local and foreign fighters, mostly Pakistanis, in the area.”

In a statement, the Nato-led International Security Assistant Force (Isaf) said: “We are aware of an incident yesterday in Kunar province in which insurgents engaged an Afghan and coalition force.

“No Isaf personnel were involved on the ground, but Isaf provided fire support from the air, killing several insurgents.

We are also aware of reports of several civilians injured from the engagement, but no reports of civilian deaths. Isaf takes all reports of civilian casualties seriously, and we are currently assessing the incident.

“The air support was called in by coalition forces – not Afghans – and was used to engage insurgent forces in areas away from structures, according to our reporting.”

A statement issued on behalf of President Karzai strongly condemned the Nato attack, and “military operations in residential areas that cause civilian deaths”.

“The president also strongly condemns the Taliban’s tactic of using civilians and their homes as their shields,” it said.

International forces are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Civilian deaths in Western military operations have been a source of tension between the Afghan government led President Karzai and the US and its Nato allies.

In February last year, at least 10 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in a Nato air strike in the same area.

In February this year, President Karzai ordered a complete ban on Afghan security forces calling in air strikes in residential areas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22058455

The Tribune – US says 1984 riots not genocide

I think that we should :

- Come up with a clear definition of ‘genocide’ based on International Law, Human Rights Conventions etc

- In the mean time campaign for acknowledgement that grave human rights violations took place in the period from the late eighties till the early nineties

Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

Washington, April 2. The Obama Administration today refused to declare the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India as genocide, but noted that grave human rights violations had occurred.

The White House response in this regard came months after a section of the Sikh community in the US launched an on-line petition campaign urging the Obama Administration to recognise the 1984 riots as genocide.

The petition created on November 15, 2012, had generated more than 30,000 signatures within weeks. Each petition that crosses the threshold of 25,000 signatures is reviewed and receives a response.

“During and after the 1984 violence, the United States monitored and publicly reported on the grave human rights violations that occurred and the atrocities committed against members of the Sikh community,” the White House response said.

It noted that the US State Department’s Official Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, for example, covered the violence and its aftermath in detail, with sections on political killings, disappearances, denial of fair public trials, negative effects on freedom of religion, and the government’s response to civil society organisations investigating allegations of human rights violations.

“We continue to condemn — and more importantly, to work against — violence directed at people based on their religious affiliation. US Government efforts to protect the rights and freedoms of all people have long been a feature of our foreign policy. Our diplomats regularly report on and speak out against violence against minorities around the world,” the White House said in response to the online petition. (PTI)

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130403/main4.htm

The Tribune – American Sikhs join Obama in calling for gun control

Washington, March 29. Members of the Sikh community joined President Barack Obama as he sought to spur lawmakers into action against gun violence in the wake of tragedies like the Newtown massacre in December that killed 20 first-graders.

“We need everybody to remember how we felt 100 days ago and make sure that what we said at that time wasn’t just a bunch of platitudes, that we meant it,” Obama said at a White House event on National Day of Action by supporters of tougher gun laws.

“We’ve cried enough and it is time now for Americans to pressure their elected leaders to pass a package of laws proposed by Senate Democrats,” a sombre and angry Obama told the audience, which included family members of Newtown victims.

Also invited were four prominent members of the Sikh community to represent the families of the victims of the gurdwara shootout at Oak Creek, Wisconsin, last August when six worshippers were killed.

Proposals ranging from expanded background checks to tougher laws against gun trafficking and improving safety at schools have been recommended in the aftermath of the Newtown tragedy. But these have all come to naught in the face of fierce opposition led by the influential National Rifle Association and conservative politicians.

Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE), who was among the invitees, said in a statement: “People inspired by our faith must work towards making our society safe for all people, and especially for our children.” Prabhjot Singh Kohli, Chairman of Guru Nanak Foundation of America (GNFA), said the Sikh community was “actively supporting the control of guns going in the wrong hands” as it feared more tragedies similar to the one at the Wisconsin gurdwara. (IANS)

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130330/punjab.htm#6

The Tribune – ‘Ban’ on kirpan: Sikh clergy summons US gurdwara chief

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 25. Taking serious note of the alleged ban on ‘kirpan’ at Gurdwara of Rochester, the Sikh clergy today directed the gurdwara management committee chief, Santokh Singh Badesha, to appear before the Akal Takht within a month and clarify on the court orders in this regard.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh said though they received a letter from Badesha, saying that there was no ban on ‘kirpan’, the Sikh high priests have asked him to personally appear before the Akal Takht and give his clarification along with relevant documents.

Warning issued

The clergy has warned him of action as per ‘Gurmaryada’ if he fails to follow their directions. Earlier, it was alleged that the board of trustees of the Gurdwara of Rochester had itself got a ban imposed on wearing ‘kirpan’ in the shrine.

Sacrilege in Pakistan

The Sikh high priests have also taken a note of reports of sacrilege pouring in from the gurdwaras in neighbouring Pakistan. The Akal Takht Jathedar said the SGPC has already written a letter to the Pakistan government as well as Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The meeting saw serious deliberations on the issue, following which the PSGPC was directed to pay attention towards managing gurdwara affairs in a proper manner.

Restricting loudspeakers

The Sikh clergy has also directed all the gurdwaras to restrict the volume of loudspeakers within the premises so that it doesn’t cause any inconvenience to students and patients.

Ban on use of scent

In another move, the Sikh high priests have directed the Sikh Sangat not to spray scent during the Holla Mohalla celebrations at the Golden Temple on March 28, contending that some scents also have alcohol content, which is tantamount to sacrilege.

Website launch deferred

The launch of the Akal Takht’s website, which was to take place today, has been postponed to April 1. It will be inaugurated by SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130326/punjab.htm#7