Akali leaders hail Punjabis for maintaining peace

Chandigarh, May 27 (UNI) The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab today thanked all Punjabis for maintaining peace and communal harmony during the ongoing Sikh-Sacha Sauda conflict.

In a joint statement issued here, senior SAD leaders Gurdav Singh Badal, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Balwinder Singh Bhunder said the Punjabis had set an example by maintaining peace and communal harmony in the face of grave provocation.

They said by maintaining peace, the poeple of the state had also defeated the nefarious designs of anti-panthic, anti-Punjabi, anti-people and anti-peace forces that were out to alienate Punjabis.

The leaders said events in the last 14 days, besides hurting the religious sentiments and psyche of believers in the tenets of Sikh religion, had anguished all the Punjabis. They lamented that certain ''forces'' were taking advantage of the current crisis to project the Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular as ''violent communities.'' The statement said the Centre as well as Haryana government should prevail upon ''egoistic'' Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh ''to come forward for an early solution in the interests of lasting peace in the region''. The leaders said the Sikh community, despite grave provocation and anguish in their hearts, was maintaining peace for the overall interests of the state and nobody should test their patience.

They appealed to all religious social organisations to impress upon the Sacha Sauda head to stop all those acts that hurt the religious sensitiies and tender an apology as demanded by the Akal Takht.

UNI