- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Sikh community in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan has expressed its anger over the vandalism of a statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), the first Sikh ruler who reigned in the early part of the 19th century, at the Lahore Fort on Tuesday (17). The nine-feet tall cold bronze statue was destroyed by an activist of the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.
A video went viral on the social media showing the accused, who was later arrested, shouting slogans and breaking the arm of the statue and dismantling Singh’s bust from the horse and throwing it on ground. Gorpal Singh, the leader of the Sikh community in Peshawar in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said they would bring the statue to Peshawar if the government of the province of Punjab (where Lahore is located) could not protect it.
Singh said a picture of the Sikh king was put on display at the historic Balahisar Fort in Peshawar around six years ago and no damage has been done to it till date. He said that frequent attacks on the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh hurt the community’s feelings and sentiments.
Vandalism in Lahore of the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji, the great unifier of India, has to be strongly condemned. This act which attempts to erase the shared history of the subcontinent shows how extremist ideologies feel emboldened in our volatile neighbourhood. pic.twitter.com/aI2wN3QGbe
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) August 17, 2021
This is not the first time that the statue of Singh has been targeted. Last year, too, its arm was broken. Also in 2019, it was damaged by two young men.
Protests over the act also took place in India. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its frontal organisations staged a protest near the Pakistan High Commission in national capital New Delhi on Wednesday (18) condemning the act in Lahore.
Leaders and workers of the Yuva Morcha, Purvanchal Morcha and the Sikh Cell of the BJP’s Delhi unit raised slogans against Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan demanding his apology. The protesters gathered at the Teen Murti area of the diplomatic enclave Chanakya Puri and were stopped by the police personnel near the compound of the Pakistan High Commission.
“We are demanding not just an apology from Khan but also asking for his assurance to stop persecution of Hindus and Sikhs and desecration of their shrines and idols. The Pakistan government must also apologise and install a grand statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh where it was demolished in Lahore,” Delhi BJP media cell head Navin Kumar said.
Slamming the act of vandalism, India said Islamabad has completely failed in its duty to prevent such attacks which are creating a “climate of fear” among the minority communities.
