Fleeing Sikhs take refuge in Pak Gurdwara

Over 300 Pakistani Sikhs forced to flee the Taliban over failure to pay extortion money, have taken shelter at the Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hassanabdalm, Punjab (Pakistan). Although Pak government has rejected Indian concerns about the plight of Sikhs in the tribal area, more than 100 Sikh families have so far been displaced by the militants who have demolished 11 Sikhs homes.

According to Syed Faraz Abbas, deputy administrator of the Pakistani Shrines Evacuee Trust Property Board, the board has, with the help of Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, made elaborate arrangements to assist the 115 displaced Sikh families.

According to engineer Ravinder Singh, one of the displaced Sikhs from Peer Baba in Buner, a majority of the displaced families were living in Peer Baba, Daggar, Dewana Baba, Jhangi, Gogga, Sawari, Changli and Ghourgohsti areas.

He said the Sikhs of the Orakzai agency are being persecuted by the local Taliban under the garb of ‘jiziya’, or tax that minorities pay in Islam to a Muslim state in exchange for state protection and security of life and property. The Sikhs were reportedly told either they all convert or pay the tax.