BiggChan
-
Posts
195 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Calendar
Forums
Posts posted by BiggChan
-
-
Please try to keep this thread for information on the incident at hand. I am sure petty squabbles can be dealt with elsewhere, possibly the playground.
0 -
Man missing since yesterday’s clashes
Jyotika Sood
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, December 6
Even after having returned home safe unaffected by Saturday’s violence, Jagjit Singh is very worried man and so is his family. The reason - his 38-year-old brother, Swaran, who had gone out along with him, is still missing.
"My brother and I, along with his seven-year-old son, had gone along with the ‘Akhand Kirtaniya jatha’ to the Feruman Shaheeda gurdwara to protest against a congregation that was being held at the GLADA grounds on Chandigarh Road. Though my nephew and I came back home safe and sound yesterday, I don't have any idea about where my brother might be," said a worried Jagjit.
“We’ve been looking for him everywhere, praying he is safe, but have yet not been able to get a clue as to his whereabouts. "The last time I saw him yesterday was at Cheema Chowk when the police lobbed tear gas shells at a rampaging mob. After the crowd dispersed we got separated," he added.
For the last 35 hours Jagjit has been frantically searching for his brother, hoping someone would disclose his whereabouts.
“My brother devotes most of his time in prayers and ‘kirtans’ and we thought he was probably busy helping those injured in the violence. However, his mobile has remained switched off”, says Jagjit. He added Swaran has two sons aged seven and four, along with a nine-year-old daughter and wife Simranjit Kaur waiting for him.
Suspecting the police might be involved in his disappearance, former SAD councillor Rajinder Singh Bhatia said, "We all fear the cops picked him up and will torture him. In fact many people have gone missing after yesterday’s clashes and this needs to be probed.”
Swaran is a resident of Azad Nagar and runs a confectionary shop to earn his livelihood.
0 -
Please check the pictures in this article. Can someone please post these on the thread. I am unable to do so.
0 -
I think you may have the wrong 'Bittu'. Daljit Singh Bittu's in custody isn't he? Is it Kanwarjit Singh Bittu you mean?
0 -
http://www.jagbani.in/Details.aspx?id=631&boxid=124196702
Can somebody please upload these pictures on to the thread.
Note the evidence of indiscriminate firing (bus windows shot out).
0 -
Apologies if this has already been posted.
0 -
Can somebody please do seva of posting these pictures on this thread. Not working when I try.
0 -
-
-
-
-
1984 Anti-sikh Riots
Justice After A Long Wait
Twelve years after the horrific riots, a judge sends 90 accused to jail and more could follow
Sep 11, 1996
Bhavdeep Kang
Dr Ashok, epitome of a political wannabe in crumpled kurta-pyjama, looked tense as he faced Additional Sessions Judge Shiv Narain Dhingra last week. The Congress (T) member, who was municipal councillor from Trilokpuri at the time of the 1984 riots, is accused of having been part of a mob which broke into a Sikh home on the morning of November 2, 1984, dragging men out by their hair, beating them with iron rods and then burning them alive.
"It is a political conspiracy. The government became defender of the actions of the rioters, who had become government agents of violence.I wasn't even there," mumbles the defendant, who was the Congress (T) nominee from Aligarh in the 1996 Lok Sabha poll. After Dhingra's sentencing spree last week, consigning 90 riot accused to five-year terms in two separate orders, he admits to a shadow of trepidation about the outcome of his own case.
In contrast to the doctor, Kishori the 'butcher' swaggers into court without a trace of nervousness. Charged with hacking 16 people to death during the '84 riots and already serving an eight-year sentence for rioting, his primary concern is the cuisine at Tihar Jail. After all, it's going to be a long stay.
If the accused have one thing in common, it is a healthy fear of Dhingra, regarded by the Shahadara district court lawyers as a cross between Judge Dredd and the Avenging Angel. Inclusive of last week's orders, 136 people have been convicted in cases pertaining to the 1984 riots in East Delhi.
Many more cases are listed for disposal this week. Convictions are expected to come thick and fast; Dhingra is on the warpath.
For 10 years "the order sheet of the court in this case has been nothing but an attendance register of the accused persons...the case was never opened", Dhingra observed last week in his main order convicting 89 persons for rioting. As for the other riot-related cases, his predecessor S.S. Bal had a penchant for dismissing them. Public prosecutor A.B. Tandon says: "The majority of the 87 cases registered in East Delhi ended in acquittals by Bal. I have recommended appeals against 15 of these."
It was Tandon who brought some sense of order to the messy body of litigation he inherited in 1994. As soon as Dhingra took over in 1995, he moved a plea that the omnibus challan filed by the police in the Trilokpuri case should be split up. It was nigh impossible to squeeze all 200 accused into one courtroom, he pointed out. Dhingra agreed, 70 separate challans were filed and progress has been swift thereafter. The bulk of the accused are Hindus, with a sprinkling—perhaps 10 per cent—of Muslims. Only in one rather bizarre case, has a Sikh been accused.
Currently, there are some 70 riot cases pending in various courts, the bulk of them in East Delhi. Tandon, who is handling 45 East Delhi cases, says his chief problems are the delay in bringing the accused to trial and the lackadaisical police investigation. He points out that although 95 bodies were recovered from Trilokpuri's Block 32 on November 2, only one FIR was registered, on a complaint by survivor Rijju Singh. It underwent many amendments, with names and charges being added piecemeal over the years by various commissions.
The investigation was handed over to a special cell in April 1985. Some 160 witnesses were examined and two chargesheets filed. So shoddy was the police work that prosecutors found themselves hard put to explain to the courts the delay in filing the FIRs and recording statements of the witnesses and victims and the non-recovery of dead bodies and weapons. Tandon considers himself lucky that the courts recognised the "abnormal situation following the riots and took a sympathetic view". In many cases, he says, the victim may be the sole witness and the judge has to be convinced of his or her credibility.
"It is not only that the police did not do its duty of investigating the crime properly but it deliberately did not collect evidence," Dhingra's order in the Trilokpuri case said. "Is it not surprising that 200 murders were being investigated by one SI with the help of a constable...(that) the murders of more than 200 innocent persons was not sufficient to require a high-level investigation according to the police norms?"
Equally unsparing of police and administration, the judge has not balked at naming names. The then SHO Kalyanpuri, Shoorvir Tyagi, "made no arrangement for the protection of the lives of these Sikh persons...the SHO seemed to have fabricated (an FIR) to conceal his malafide inaction and shield his collusion with the rioters".
Delhi Police Commissioner Nikhil Kumar, then an additional commissioner of police, also drew Dhingra's attention.
He quoted an article which described how Kumar "justified the absence of the police in Trilokpuri on the ground that he performed his duty by informing the police control room". Kumar is quoted as having said: "I'm a guest artist here on posting orders out of Delhi."
The then district magistrate of East Delhi, R.S. Sethi, too, comes in for criticism: "If (he) was a witness to the riots and could say with authenticity that there was no political leader among the rioters, then he was also a party to the killings by not performing his duty." The then lieutenant-governor received a rap on the knuckles for having given "a clean chit to various powerful persons".
Dhingra added: "The inaction of the police, the government and the administration in the riot case was a well-thought out process." He pointed out that the government is still sitting on a bunch of affidavits filed by riot victims "in which the names of political leaders were given by the victims as the accused persons". He has now summoned these affidavits.
Something that advocate P.N. Lekhi would welcome. He agrees that senior politicians have so far escaped the net, turning the investigations into "a mockery of justice". But now, the wheels appear to be turning. Ex-MP Sajjan Kumar, whose supporters 'arrested' CBI officials who had come to arrest him in a riot-related case in 1990, thus enabling him to get bail, is to face trial.
The erudite judge ended his order, peppered with maxims from the Manu Smriti , with the observations: "Where a government refuses or neglects to protect citizens, the very legitimacy of the government or its executive wing which is responsible for protecting is questioned and doubted." Small wonder that the mood among the lawyers defending the riot accused is getting progressively pessimistic. The pessimism deepened last Friday with the Delhi High Court dismissing Congress leader and former union minister H.K.L. Bhagat's plea to quash the charges of murder, rioting, and unlawful assembly framed against him by Dhingra's court in two 1984 riot cases. Yet another riot case is listed for final orders, Budh Prakash Kashyap, an associate of Bhagat, joins the procession of riot accused parading through Dhingra's court. One of the accused, Ram Pal Saroj, erstwhile Congress pradhan of Trilokpuri, is believed to have committed suicide. The boot, it seems, is finally on the other foot.
0 -
Long Arm Beckons
H.K.L. Bhagat finds himself in the dock 12 years after the anti-Sikh riots
Jan 31, 1996
Ishan Joshi
Finally, it took just one lower court judge to issue a non-bailable warrant against former Union minister and Congress strongman H.K.L. Bhagat for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. The testimony of just one victim proved enough. Twelve long years after the Sikh population of Delhi was cast as the gaddars (traitors) and thousands of them dragged out of their homes and murdered, the survivors had stopped hoping. That the guilty would ever be punished. Or that they would ever be 'rehabilitated'. Or that they would ever forget.
Then came January 17, 1996. The setting: the court of Shiv Narain Dhingra, additional sessions judge. Satnami Bai, an ayah at Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain Hospital, narrates how her husband was killed in front of their house in Block 32, Tirlokpuri, west Delhi, on November 1, 1984. She says that Bhagat instigated his cohorts, who executed the task while she watched in horror, her five-year-old daughter in her arms. She mentions Budh Prakash Kashyap, a local Congress leader at the time, as a participant in the act. The judge orders that Kashyap (who is present in court in connection with another case) be taken into custody immediately and that Bhagat be served a non-bailable warrant through the Delhi police riot cell. He adds that he wants Bhagat produced in court by January 24.
This dramatic burst of orders, in a case long overtaken by history, came with a rationale. Dhingra had to emphasise that though Bhagat and Kashyap were not named in the FIR and cognisance of the offence was not taken at the time of committal, the court is empowered under Section 219 of the Criminal Procedure Code to summon any accused person against whom evidence is unearthed during the course of the trial. Four others are already on trial in the case.
The effect of Satnami's testimony and the judge's decision was instantaneous. Hope returned to Tilak Vihar, the colony on the fringes of west Delhi where the riot victims were resettled. Satnami Bai's response is unequivocal: "Now they must be hanged. Nothing else will satisfy me. I've suffered so much that I have lost the capacity to forgive."
She goes back to that day in 1984. "My husband, Mohan Singh, was a poor autorickshaw driver who was never involved in any politics. They dragged him out of the house, hit him on the head with an iron rod, sprinkled petrol on him and burnt him alive." She adds that "Bhagat and his cronies must not be allowed to get away". The other riot widows agree.
Bhagat, on his part, is screaming foul. He claims that the charges are "fabricated and politically motivated", engineered by Delhi Chief Minister M.L. Khurana and a section of the Akalis. "It's a pack of lies. Why did this woman keep quiet for 12 years and then suddenly decide to come up with this story? Why didn't she give my name to any of the numerous commissions that have probed the 1984 riots?" he asks.
Satnami's stand is that January 15the day she gave her initial testimony before the lower courtwas the first time after the riots that followed the Indira Gandhi assassination that she lodged a complaint. "When the army took me and my daughter to the riot victim camp in the first week of November 1984, a policeman took down all the details and said he'd registered my com-plaint. Over the past 12 years, I thought my complaint was being processed along with all the others and I had no time to follow it up on my own. I was busy eking out a living and bringing up my daughter. It's only a few months ago that I realised my complaint wasn't even registered. That's when I decided to approach the courts," she says.
Satnami denies she ever filed affidavits before the Ranganath Mishra Commission and the Jain-Bannerjee Commission, or that she was examined by the Jain-Aggarwal Committee. "How can this be true? How could I mention Bhagat as one of the rioters in my earlier testimonies when not a single sarkari commission ever spoke to me?" she asks.
Local Sikh leaders point out that even the Government has counted 1,850 riot widows. Many of them are from Tirlokpuri's Block 32, one of the worst-hit areas. And many allege Bhagat's wife also participated in the riots. "Ask anybody in Block 32 whether they saw Bhagat's wife sitting in an open vehicle while the murder and loot was going on," says one of them.
For Bhagatwhose lawyers have moved the Delhi High Court to "quash the lower court order and stay the proceedings before it"the development comes at a particularly bad time. He has been marginalised in his former fiefdom, the Congress' Delhi unit. Once the "uncrowned king of Delhi", his influence with the high command amounts to nothing these days. And even his aides concede that with the general elections around the corner and the Congress looking for Sikh votes, an enfeebled Bhagat may just be "sacrificed" to assuage the feelings of the community if Satnami's charges stick.
Still, Bhagat does retain the support of a core group which is extremely agitated at the court summons. And, rather ominously, they recall how a CBI team which had attempted to arrest Congress MP Sajjan Kumar a few years ago for his alleged involvement in the riots was thrashed by his men as an example that may be worth emulating. "It's natural," says Bhagat, his diminished stature brought out in sharp relief by the two couple of die-hard supporters flanking him. "When an innocent man is unjustly accused, the anger will be there. They're insisting they won't let the police arrest me but I've been trying to calm them down."
As far as the summons is concerned, Bhagat is banking on the high court to bail him out. "If it's required by law, I will appear before the court," he says. Have the police got in touch with him? "No. Why should they? In any event, they won't come here, to my house, till January 24. And the high court should have decided one way or the other by then." And that also buys him time to try out some desperate political measures. For one, he has been trying to gather his dwindling flock. He has also thrown his weightfor whatever it's worthbehind the unity moves within the Congress in the hope that Sonia Gandhi will agree to "guide the party and the nation". For, he realises more than anyone else that the current dispensation has not much use for him.
0 -
http://www.probingeye.com/2009/06/when-indira-wondered-why-sikhs-play.html
From the forthcoming book “Untold story of Indian hockey”
0 -
Two years after, main accused of killing of 4 Nihangs, still at large
GAGANDEEP AHUJA
Monday, 21 September 2009
PATIALA: Police has failed to nab the main accused in the killing of four nihangs which was occurred two years back here at bagichi (The rest place) of Nihangs.
The present chief of Nihang Singh sect (The Shiromani Panth Akali Budha Dal -Panjwan Takht) Baba Balbir Singh has lost his father Assa Singh his two brothers Bhajan Singh & Jagdish Singh and nephew Karamjit Singh (22) in a shoot out on September 21 2007.
The police had registered a murder case against about two dozen people including Uday Singh, a nephew of Santa Singh, earlier head of the Budha Dal, his wife, son, daughter and another important Nihang leader, Surjit Singh. Eight persons have been arrested by the police so far but Uday and Surjit are still at large.
Baba Balbir Singh was also under attack and had faced many bids on his life. He however has sought Z-plus security. He has also sought a high-level probe from the CBI or any other agency into a series of attacks on him so far.
Talking to this reporter, the nihang chief said, “Those responsible for attacks on me are moving around freely and the government has not yet arrested any of the accused, who are proclaimed offenders. The police should act fast and arrest them so as to know the motive behind the repeated attacks.”
Demanding a high-level probe and stepping up of his security, Baba Balbir Singh claimed that “even the previous nihang chief Baba Santa Singh had Z-plus security”.
“Is the government waiting for a loss of life?” he asked. The nihang chief said he has survived five murderous attacks — the first one on him and his family in 2000 at Fatehgarh, after which he again suffered an assault in Talwandi Sabo on April 15, 2007.
“Thereafter, in another big attack on September 21, 2007, the murderers killed my father, two brothers and a nephew in Patiala. After that, I lost my sewadar Nihang Singh in Talwandi Sabo.
He said that killers of his father, two brothers and nephew has been moving freely in Patiala but police has failed to arrest them.
0 -
Babbar Khalsa plot to disturb peace foiled
14.7 kg of RDX seized in R’sthan in less than a week
Perneet Singh
Tribune News Service
Jaipur, September 14
With the seizure of 14.7 kg of RDX along with other arms and ammunition in Barmer in less than a week, the Rajasthan police has thwarted nefarious designs of Babbar Khalsa to execute fresh attacks in the country.
The Special Operations Group (SOG) made the first recovery last Tuesday after intercepting messages of notorious smuggler Lunia (alias Sodha Khan) about delivery of a major arms and explosives consignment. Though Lunia managed to give police the slip, the latter recovered 6 kg of RDX, eight foreign-made pistols, 400 units of various magazines and cartridges, 12 detonators and huge quantity of fuse wire from Marudi village in Barmer.
However, the police managed to arrest Lunia from Bijrar police station area last Saturday after he was tracked down by intelligence agencies. Jodhpur range IG Bhupendra Dak said Lunia’s two aides -- Nazir Khan and his namesake -- have also been arrested.
Following Lunia’s interrogation on Sunday, the police seized 8.7 kg of RDX, eight detonators, eight magazines, 596 bullets, 500-feet long safety wires, four batteries and four foreign-made pistols. The total consignment (including RDX) is the biggest haul in Rajasthan till now.
Barmer SP Navjyoti Gogoi said the consignment was supposed to be delivered to Babbar Khalsa terrorist organisation but the police seized it before the outfit’s terrorists could lay their hands on it. According to him, Lunia and his accomplices had smuggled the explosives from Pakistan via Rajasthan border.
One glance at the sheer quantity of explosives and the kind of preparations they had made is enough to indicate the scale of destruction that the terrorists wanted to cause in the country. Police sources said long safety-fuse wires, ranging from 50 to 90 feet, battery and detonators were ready-to-use and could be planted easily, causing huge loss of life and property. The pistols were China-made while the timer devices were so advanced the blast could be triggered even after 184 days of fixing it, they added.
This is not the first time Lunia’s involvement has come to fore in a major arms and explosives smuggling case. His name also figured in the arms and explosives smuggling case in which the BSF and the police had foiled a terror attack at the American Centre in Kolkata in 2002.
0 -
-
thats good right? if they don't see Guru Granth Sahib Ji as Guru, they might aswell to the Saroops parkash in the nearest other gurdwara.
Yes, if due respect is not being showed to Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj, this is the ideal outcome. However, it seems that the pro-ramanandi supporters are attempting to cause division and do not speak for the whole community.
Ravidasia delegation meets Takht Jathedar
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 11
An 11-member delegation of the Samaj Bachao Morcha, representing a section of the Ravidasia community, has put forth seven suggestions at a meeting with Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh to normalise strained relations among Sikhs and Dalits post murder of Sant Rama Nand in Vienna.
The Jathedar has assured them of his cooperation in resolving the contentious issue and said he would also consider their demand of setting up of a committee by the Takht to probe the murder of Sant Rama Nand and the violence erupted in Punjab in its aftermath. The delegation met Giani Gurbachan Singh at his residence.
The morcha head, Gian Chand, said on behalf of a section of Ravidasias that they would do whatever they could to restore the warmth of relations between the two communities. Expressing its concern over the alleged removal of Birs from around 100 gurdwaras named after Guru Ravidas, the morcha leaders and members of delegation assured the Jathedar that they would be leaving no stone unturned to restore the “Birs” in the gurdwaras with full respect.
The seven suggestions put forth before the Jathedar included the SGPC should be celebrating “Purabs” of all Saints and Gurus whose “Baani” has been included in Guru Granth Sahib and that there should be common cremation grounds for Sikhs and Dalits as the Sikhism has always shunned the casteist approach prevailing in society. “We feel the “Baani” of Guru Ravidas and other Saints is perfectly in line with the philosophy of Guru Granth Sahib,” said Gian Chand.
0 -
Not too sure whether this decision was appealed although I seem to recall his daughter, a Birmingham based solicitor, was attempting to lobby political support in the U.K at the time.
Here's some more links:
0 -
Three Sikh militants get 5 years RI for possessing explosives
Punjab Newsline Network
Friday, 14 November 2008
JALANDHAR: Three Sikh militants arested with explosives including RDX by Jalandhar police two years back were Friday sentenced to five years rigrous imrisonment and were imposed a fine of Rs.500 on each.
The Additional District and Session Judge (Adhoc) Jalandhar held guilty three accused Paramjit Singh Dhadi, Amrik Singh Khara and Jaswinder Singh who is nephew of Jasbir Singh Rode former jathedar of Akal Takht.
The police had booked the convicts under section 4/5 of explosive Act and sections 25,54 and 57 of Arms act in police station division number 7 here.
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/13775/
3 terrorists sentenced for 5 years imprisonment
Friday, November 14, 2008 18:44 [iST]
Jalandhar: A fast track court of the city today sentenced three accused terrorists, who were arrested last year with huge quantity of RDX and other lethal weapons, for five years imprisonment under Explosive Act and one year's imprisonment under Arms Act.
The accused identified as Jaswinder Singh (24), Amolak Singh (53) and Paramjit Singh Dhadi alias Punjab Singh (55) ( a UK National) were produced before the fast track court of Additional Session Judge Ravinder Singh, who after listening to both prosecution and Defense, sentenced the accused for five years imprisonment under Explosive Act and one year's imprisonment under Arms Act.
A case against the accused was registered in Division Number Seven of the district on December 23,2006 after explosives including 11 Kilogram of RDX, 11 detonators, 11 timer devices, four hand grenades, two batteries, two pistols with four magazines and 100 cartridges, 10 meters of wire and one walkie-talkie set, were recovered from them.
Amolak Singh and Jaswinder Singh the two accused are relatives of Lakhbir Singh Rode of International Sikh Youth Federation, sources said.
Paramjit Singh Dhadi alias Punjab Singh was living in England since 1970 and had been frequently visiting India, sources said adding that he had also been visiting Pakistan regularly and was in touch with his mentors including dreaded terrorists Lakhbir Singh Rode and Ranjit Singh Neeta of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF).
Source : PTI
0 -
Birs removed from Guru Ravidas gurdwaras
Sect leaders to meet Takht chief today
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 10
Strained ties between Sikhs and Dalits, particularly the Ravidasia community, following murder of Sant Rama Nand in Vienna got accentuated with alleged removal of Birs (replicas of Guru Granth Sahib) by certain Dalits from gurdwaras named after Guru Ravidas in the Doaba region.
The Doaba region which witnessed widespread violence after the death of Sant Rama Nand has the largest population (about 45 per cent) of Dalits in Punjab.
Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh has asserted the Sikhs would not allow any such development to take place. “The leaders of a faction of Ravidasias are coming to meet and discuss the matter tomorrow. We are not going to allow any such deviation to take place. Minor differences can be sorted out through dialogue. Both communities have old ties, which should remain intact. Not only this, we are also going to call leaders of Udasi and Nirmala sects to iron out differences or misunderstandings, if any,” said Giani Gurbachan Singh. He, however, said he was not aware about the alleged removal of Birs from gurdwaras of Guru Ravidas.
“Ravidasias are anguished over what had happened in Vienna and afterwards. A section of them have even removed Birs from 100 gurdwaras named after Guru Ravidas in Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr districts in Doaba. While certain Dalits are supporting the move, we are not in favour of this as it is a matter of religious faith and understanding between the two communities. It is only for this feeling we have sought time from Akal Takht Jathedar for discussion on the issue. We are all for peace in Punjab,” said Gian Chand, a leader of Ravidasias and head of the Samaj Bachao Morcha, adding he had a list of gurdwaras from where Birs have been removed.
“We will give this list to the Jathedar. Our delegation is meet the Jathedar at Akal Takht at 4 pm on Friday. Besides, we are also holding discussions with 10 religious leaders of the Dalit community on the issue,” said Gian Chand.
He also confirmed a large number of Ravidasia families had started adhering to the recitation of just 40 shalokas of Guru Ravidas in place of the recitation of the paath of Guru Granth Sahib. “In fact, Ravidasias are too hurt over the Sant Rama Nand’s killing,” he added.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090911/punjab.htm#5
“We are also going to probe the removal of Birs from Guru Ravidas gurdwaras in Doaba,” he said.
0 -
Is Baba Hari Singh Ji still at Sedgley Street Gurudwara. If so, when is he due in Birmingham/Smethwick?
0 -
Guy in the second video looks like Hardeep Kohli :lol:
0 -
Kphull, at no stage did I label Gurdas Mann as a non-Sikh. Incidentally, I do not know whether he professes the Sikh faith or not. My point is that if he does profess the Sikh faith, he doesn't seem to be that bothered (vocally) about events that are occuring to ticket purchasing Sikhs who attend them.
You did not name me specifically, but you quoted from my post so it is only courteous that I respond. Furthermore, i don't think it is fair to say EVERYONE on this forum loves to contradict themselves.......that's a very big generalisation....for example like saying everyone named Kphull haven't got a clue what there on about.
0
Indian Sect Members Vow To Marry "sex" Workers
in WHAT'S HAPPENING?
Posted
Indian sect members vow to marry sex workers
More than 1,000 followers of a multi-religious sect in northern India have pledged to marry female sex workers who want to escape exploitation.
Young Hindu, Muslim and Sikh men have been queuing up at the Dera Sacha Sauda (Abode of the Real Deal) in the town of Sirsa as "wedding volunteers".
They say they are doing so to stop the women from being exploited in brothels.
They also claim that their move is part of a campaign to stop the spread of the HIV/Aids virus.
The Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) is one of many religious sects operating in northern India.
Most take root by offering community services, social welfare and spiritual leadership but over time, as their followings grow, they often seek political influence.
"All women forced to live as prostitutes are my daughters"
Gurmeet Ram Rahim
Correspondents say that in religious terms, the DSS is hard to classify. Many experts argue that it is not, as some have said, an offshoot of Sikhism.
More than 1,200 DSS members have signed pledges to marry the sex workers following a call from DSS chief Ram Rahim Singh a little over a month ago.
Mr Singh commands a huge following of predominantly lower caste Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs across the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Two years ago his growing influence brought the DSS chief into confrontation with the mainstream Sikh clergy who claimed he had tried to imitate their beliefs.
The sectarian violence that ensued across Punjab - as well as subsequent rape and murder charges brought against Ram Rahim Singh - have cast a shadow on the affairs and functioning of the DSS ever since, observers say.
But the group's supporters believe the new campaign is to halt the spread of HIV by offering respectable options to sex workers and is part of a long list of related initiatives against drug abuse and female foeticide.
"By helping drug users and sex workers we are trying to help remove people from the highest risk situations," said Dr Aditya Insan, a senior DSS functionary.
'Delicately handled'
He estimates that 40%-50% of women working in red light districts in cities like Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi are HIV carriers.
Mr Singh (known as Guru-ji to his supporters) proclaimed at a congregation last month that "all women forced to live as prostitutes are my daughters".
His remarks brought forth a virtual flood of eager young volunteers from his flock.
Business graduate Ashish Sachdeva, 22, is in the garments trade in the town of Sirsa. He believes that marrying a sex worker could be his chance to repay his debt to humanity and society.
"I am very well settled and it will be the greatest honour for me to respond to Guru-ji's call."
Nearly 100 young sex workers have contacted the DSS - from Calcutta's Shonagachi red light district to brothels in Delhi and Mumbai.
"This will have to be a slow and delicately handled process," Dr Insan said.
"Many women are HIV-positive. Some have young children and are understandably concerned about their future. We need to ensure these women are protected legally once they are married."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8416739.stm