Tag: Sikhs

King Charles III’s coronation: Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs feature on Royal Mail stamp

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London: A stamp depicting Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and their places of worship feature on one of the four stamps issued by the Royal Mail to mark the coronation of King Charles III on May 6.
Captioned “Diversity and Community”, the stamp reflects a multi-faith community and the cultural diversity of contemporary British society, a news release stated.
The stamp features figures representing the Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist religions and is representative of all faiths and none.

“The background shows aspects of both rural and urban Britain and includes some of the many different places of worship that are found around the United Kingdom,” the release noted.
Presented in a miniature sheet, the stamps illustrate the Coronation ceremony and the traditional street party, as well as some of the causes His Majesty has dedicated his years of public service to.
This includes cultural diversity and community, the global ties of the Commonwealth, which he now leads, and sustainability and biodiversity.
This is only the third time in history that Royal Mail has issued stamps to mark a Coronation. The previous two occasions were for King George VI in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
“Royal Mail is proud to issue this set of commemorative stamps which celebrate the Coronation, and some of the causes which His Majesty has championed throughout his many years of public service,” Simon Thompson, Chief Executive of Royal Mail, said. “This is only the third time we have issued Coronation stamps and I am delighted that they mark the start of a new reign and a new chapter in our history,” Thompson added.

The stamps were designed by Atelier Works and feature newly commissioned wood engravings by British artist Andrew Davidson.
Royal Mail will also be applying a special postmark to stamped mail to mark the event. The postmark will run from April 28 until May 10.
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#King #Charles #IIIs #coronation #Hindus #Muslims #Sikhs #feature #Royal #Mail #stamp
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 1, 2023
Two of 17 Sikhs arrested in California sought in murder cases in India: Police

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Washington: Two of the 17 Sikhs arrested in California over the weekend from two rival gangs are facing murder charges in several cases in India, while another two are sought in other criminal cases, officials here said Wednesday.
The two Sikhs who are facing murder charges in India are Pavittar Singh and Husandeep Singh, according to a spokesperson of California Attorney General. While their nationality has not been disclosed so far, it is believed that they are still Indian citizens and have a pending asylum application.
A major mass casualty was prevented when local and federal law enforcement agencies in a series of raids arrested 17 Sikh men from various cities in northern California, mostly in and around the historic Yuba City, which has a predominant Sikh population, from two rival Sikh criminal syndicates.

The two rival gangs are called Minta Group’ and the AK47 group.’ The leader of the first group is Minta. Each of the two gangs has at least 30 members.
To the surprise of even the law enforcement agencies, the group members were found to have several dangerous firearms upon arrest.
“During the investigation, 41 firearms were seized. Those firearms included AR15, AK-47s, handguns, and at least one machinegun,” Jennifer Dupre, the district Attorney of Sutter County said.
Two of those arrested from San Joaquin County Dharmvir Singh alias Minta and Jobanjit Singh were stopped on their way to Manteca, where they were allegedly going to commit a homicide, with pistols, large capacity magazines, and fully automatic weapons on them.
Dupre said law enforcement was able to stop two vehicles before they could arrive at a Sikh parade in Sacramento over the weekend.

“While a shooting did occur at the temple, we were able to stop a mass casualty incident. If those weapons had gotten into the parade, it could have been a blood bath,” Dupre said.
California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta said during the investigation, they prevented at least two additional shootings from happening. “Because of this operation future gun violence, future crime, future harm has been prevented,” he said. The multi-agency, multi-county investigation was called “Operation Broken Sword.”
“During the 2018 Sikh Parade here in Yuba City, there was an attack, a sword attack and the victim was being cut with swords, and he was also being beaten. And one of the swords broke due to the violence of that meeting. So that became the name of this operation, Operation Broken Sword,” Dupre said, adding, they also located some narcotics, and also child porn material, from the arrests.
The shooting at a gurdwara in Sacramento last month accelerated the process of investigations.
“Well, the fact that the parade was going to occur ramped up the investigation. Our goal was to try to keep that violence-free. It wasn’t completely violence-free, but as I stated, we 100 per cent believe we did prevent a mass casualty incident with our actions and the phenomenal work of law enforcement,” she said.
Dupre told PTI that following the arrests of these two criminal syndicates the feedback from the community is “very positive” and the law enforcement agencies are being applauded for preventing any further mass shootings.
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#Sikhs #arrested #California #sought #murder #cases #India #Police
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
Akal Takht Jathedar gives 24-hr ultimatum for release of Sikhs held following crackdown on Amritpal Singh

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Amritsar: Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh on Monday gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the state government to release all Sikh youths who were held during the police crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.
He also condemned the state government for invoking the National Security Act against a few persons during the police crackdown.
The Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, had convened a special gathering of Sikh organizations, including intellectuals, Sikh lawyers, journalists, religious and social leaders here to discuss the current situation in Punjab following the March 18 action against elements of ‘Waris Punjab De’ headed by Amritpal Singh.
Addressing the gathering, the Jathedar gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the Punjab government for releasing all Sikh youths in Punjab, saying otherwise the anger of Sikh community would remain simmering.
He also attacked certain TV channels, accusing them of promoting hate propaganda against Sikhs by describing the youths who have been held as separatists.
The Jathedar asked the state government to revoke the detention of some persons under the NSA and demanded that those who have been sent to Dibrugarh jail in Assam should be brought back to Punjab so that law can take its own course.
He said it would be wrong to say that there was a threat to national security due to the Sikhs who have been detained.
Without naming anyone, Singh said the NSA should also then be invoked against those who speak about ‘Hindu Rashtra.’

The Jathedar said it would extend all help to those “innocent Sikhs” who have been held in this matter.
The Jatehdar claimed around 400 Sikh youths had been “arrested” and 198 had been released.
But the Sikh community wanted release of all arrested Sikhs, he said.
He also asked the police to release the impounded vehicles of the Sikhs.
Punjab Police on Sunday had said it has released 197 persons out of total 353 taken into preventive custody on apprehension of breach of peace and disturbance of law and order.
The police had last week launched a crackdown against elements of ‘Waris Punjab De,’ headed Amritpal.
The elusive preacher himself, however, gave the police a slip and escaped their dragnet when his cavalcade was intercepted in Jalandhar district.
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#Akal #Takht #Jathedar #24hr #ultimatum #release #Sikhs #held #crackdown #Amritpal #Singh
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 27, 2023
You have 24-hr ultimatum, release arrested Sikhs: Akal Takht Jathedar to Punjab govt

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Amritsar: Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh on Monday gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the state government to release all Sikh youths who were held during the police crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.
He also condemned the state government for invoking the National Security Act against a few persons during the police crackdown.
The Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, had convened a special gathering of Sikh organizations, including intellectuals, Sikh lawyers, journalists, religious and social leaders here to discuss the current situation in Punjab following the March 18 action against elements of ‘Waris Punjab De’ headed by Amritpal Singh.
Addressing the gathering, the Jathedar gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the Punjab government for releasing all Sikh youths in Punjab, saying otherwise the anger of Sikh community would remain simmering.
He also attacked certain TV channels, accusing them of promoting hate propaganda against Sikhs by describing the youths who have been held as separatists.
The Jathedar asked the state government to revoke the detention of some persons under the NSA and demanded that those who have been sent to Dibrugarh jail in Assam should be brought back to Punjab so that law can take its own course.
He said it would be wrong to say that there was a threat to national security due to the Sikhs who have been detained.
Without naming anyone, Singh said the NSA should also then be invoked against those who speak about ‘Hindu Rashtra.’

The Jathedar said it would extend all help to those “innocent Sikhs” who have been held in this matter.
The Jatehdar claimed around 400 Sikh youths had been “arrested” and 198 had been released.
But the Sikh community wanted release of all arrested Sikhs, he said.
He also asked the police to release the impounded vehicles of the Sikhs.
Punjab Police on Sunday had said it has released 197 persons out of total 353 taken into preventive custody on apprehension of breach of peace and disturbance of law and order.
The police had last week launched a crackdown against elements of ‘Waris Punjab De,’ headed Amritpal.
The elusive preacher himself, however, gave the police a slip and escaped their dragnet when his cavalcade was intercepted in Jalandhar district.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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#24hr #ultimatum #release #arrested #Sikhs #Akal #Takht #JathedartoPunjabgovt
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 27, 2023
With Banga nomination, top World Bank positions to held by Sikhs

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Washington: With US President Joe Biden nominating Ajay Banga, the former Indian American head of Mastercard, to head the World Bank, the top posts in the global financial institution will be held by Sikhs.
Before Banga, who is slated to take up job – which, by convention, been reserved for a US citizen – this May, the World Bank already has a Sikh in a top post, with Indermit Singh Gill its Chief Economist.
He is primarily known for pioneering the concept of the “middle-income trap” to describe how countries stagnate after reaching a certain level of income.
Gill, an Indian citizen, studied at St Paul’s School, Darjeeling and St. Stephen’s College, Delhi – where he was probably just a year (or perhaps two) junior to Banga.
Like Banga, Gill is also the son of a senior Indian Army officer.
Before taking over as Chief Economist on September 1, 2022, Gill served as the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, where he played a key role in shaping its response to the extraordinary series of shocks that have hit developing economies since 2020. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program.
Widely regarded for his contributions to development economics, Gill spearheaded the influential 2009 World Development Report on economic geography, as per his World Bank profile. He has published extensively on key policy issues facing developing countries among other things, sovereign debt vulnerabilities, green growth and natural-resource wealth, labour markets, and poverty and inequality.
Gill has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago

Biden’s nomination of Banga follows his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama nominating Korean-American ‘Jim’ Yong Kim for World Bank chief to ensure that the World Bank is headed by someone with a developing-country background
Biden was then Vice President.
If confirmed by the World Bank Board, Bang will be the first person of Indian descent to head the World Bank. He will succeed David Malpass, who was appointed to head the bank by then President Donald Trump.
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#Banga #nomination #top #World #Bank #positions #held #Sikhs
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 24, 2023
Jews, Sikhs, Muslims: Top 3 religious groups under attack in US

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Washington: Jews and Sikhs were the two most targeted religious groups in the hate-motivated crime in the US in 2021, according to the annual compilation of nationwide incidents by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A total of 1,005 hate crimes related to religion were reported in 2021, the FBI said.
The largest categories of religion-based crime included anti-Jewish incidents at 31.9 per cent followed by anti-Sikh incidents at 21.3 per cent. Anti-Muslims accounted for 9.5 per cent of religion-based hate crimes. Anti-Catholic incidents accounted for 6.1 per cent and anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other) for 6.5 per cent.
Overall, law enforcement agencies reported 7,262 total incidents and 9,024 victims, demonstrating that hate crimes remain a concern for communities across the country, the FBI said.
The overall number of agencies reporting decreased to 11,834, from 15,138 in 2021, so data cannot reliably be compared across years, it said.
According to the FBI data for the year 2021, 64.8 per cent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ bias towards race/ethnicity/ancestry, which continues to be the largest bias motivation category.
Anti-Black or African American hate crimes continue to be the largest bias incident category, with 63.2 per cent of all single-bias incidents in 2021. Additionally, anti-Asian incidents represented 4.3 per cent of incidents reported in 2021.
The other largest categories of hate crimes include anti-Hispanic or Latino incidents, with 6.1 per cent of incidents, and anti-White incidents, with 13.4 per cent of incidents.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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#Jews #Sikhs #Muslims #Top #religious #groups #attack
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 23, 2023
Sikhs at risk of being ‘unlawfully’ banned from UK courts

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London: Practicing Sikhs in the UK face the risk of being unlawfully banned from entering courthouses or tribunals in England and Wales under present guidelines over kirpan (ceremonial dagger).
Sikh lawyer Jaskeerat Singh Gulshan challenged the security policy of the courts and tribunals concerning kirpans in a case which was heard this week by the lord chief justice and the vice-president of the court of appeal, The Guardian reported.
Practising, or Amritdhari Sikhs, are required to carry Kirpan at all times along with other articles of faith.
Gulshan launched a legal battle after he felt humiliated at Ealing Magistrates’ Court where he was barred from entering till he removed his kirpan in 2021.
He was carrying a Kirpan with an overall length of eight inches, and the length of the blade was four inches, which was within the permissible limit, according to him.
As per the prevailing guidelines, Sikhs are allowed to bring a kirpan into a court or tribunal building if the overall length is no more than six inches and the blade is no more than five inches in length, the report stated.
But according to Gulshan, these measurements are physically impossible as a Kirpan with four inches of blade cannot have two inches for the handle and sheath.
“In light of the HMCTS (HM Courts and Tribunals Service) guidance as it currently stands, it is apparent that a Sikh lawyer … cannot expect to practice law because he has effectively been banned from appearing in court in violation of his right to carry a kirpan as protected by UK legislation,” Gulshan’s barrister, Parminder Saini, told the lord chief justice and the vice-president of the court of appeal, The Guardian report said.

“Sikhs are unique in being a protected religion as well as a race. As a person of Sikh ethnicity, this systemic discriminatory treatment therefore occurs on both religious and ethnic grounds, and equates to systematic discrimination against Sikhs,” Saini added.
In its argument, the government said that the security policy came into force after consulting the Sikh community.
In reply to this, Saini said the government spoke with the smaller Supreme Sikh Council and not the Sikh Council UK, which is the community’s largest platform in the country, the report said.
Sukhjeevan Singh from the Sikh Council UK, said in his submission to the court that “to design and manufacture such a kirpan would be a mockery of our sacred article of faith”.
Saini said the court’s guidance is unlawful because it seeks to overrule primary legislation — it is not an offence to carry an article with a blade in a public place if a person has the article with him for religious reasons.
To this, the government argued that permission to appeal should be refused because the policy falls under the legitimate aim of protecting the security of others. Saini’s objections, they said, are “a misreading of primary legislation”.
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#Sikhs #risk #unlawfully #banned #courts
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 12, 2023