Sikh bodies demand restoration of IIOJK special status
Srinagar: Sikh organizations have demanded pre-August 5, 2019 position of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Sikh organizations, including Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) JK unit, Sikh Intellectuals Circle, J&K, JK Sikh Council, International Sikh Federation, Sikh Students Federation and many Sikh Naujawan Sabha of Jammu in a press conference in Srinagar, welcoming the holding of assembly elections in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, demanded the immediate restoration of statehood and special status.
The Sikh bodies deplored that the recent amendments in the reorganization act of the occupied territory had further diluted the power of assembly and democratic rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
They said the minority Sikh community in occupied Jammu and Kashmir is being continuously discriminated against and neglected in the matter of vital issues, including Punjabi language, political reservation, justice for many anti-Sikh rights in J&K and many other administrative demands pertaining to political survival in the territory.
The organizations said in fact in July 2021 with the initiative of senior Sikh leaders late S.T.S. Wazir, all former Sikh legislators had jointly submitted a memorandum to the then visiting delimitation commission’s chairperson but unfortunately after the delimitation report many Sikh dominated constituencies were arbitrarily divided and Sikh vote was badly scattered.
“Now we appeal to our religious heads in J&K and all other Sikh organizations and activists to jointly formulate some united strategy for betterment of Sikh community and to at least send a few Sikh faces in the Assembly,” the Sikh bodies maintained.
