Jathedar pays tribute to Khalra, calls him ‘gem’ of Sikh Panth
AMRITSAR: Akal Takht acting jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh paid tributes to slain human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra on his 25th death anniversary on Sunday.
The jathedar also hailed him as a ‘martyr’ of the Sikh community.
In a video message, he said, “Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra, a rare gem of my community, exposed grave sins of the government.
The then Indian government got innocent Sikh youngsters, children, women and elderly persons tortured to death by its men in cold blood, before cremating these as unidentified bodies.
Khalra, without caring for his life, launched a search for these persons and exposed the truth of around 25,000 such unidentified bodies.”
The jathedar added, “He also raised this matter on global platform. Today is the day, when a cruel government martyred Khalra and I will like to tell the community that the same policies towards Sikhs continue to be practised in the country, which are aimed at eliminating the Sikhs. The only difference is that the methods are new. Earlier, Sikhs were killed with bullet and torture. Now, we are being killed by creating infighting and weakening us intellectually. The community should be conscious of this.”
A religious function was held at the Gurdwara of Kabir Park locality to observe his death anniversary in the presence of Sikh leaders and his wife Paramjit Kaur Khalra, who unsuccessfully contested 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Khadoor Sahib on a Punjabi Ekta Party ticket.
His contribution to safeguarding human rights has got international recognition. Five key Canadian cities — Surrey, City of Victoria, Burnaby, New Westminster and Brampton —proclaimed September 6 as ‘Jaswant Singh Khalra Day’ to mark the 25th death anniversary. The mayors of these cities have signed proclamations paying tribute to Khalra.