Tension brews between Sikhs and Muslims of Nankana Sahib following land dispute

AMRITSAR: Nearly two years after the attack on Gurdwara

Nankana Sahib

, birthplace of Sikh’s first master Guru Nanak Dev, in Pakistan, tension once again brewed between a local group of Sikhs and Muslims after as many as three Sikhs were injured in a clash with local Muslim land mafia.

The injured include Dilawar Singh, son of the former president of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC)

Mastan Singh

and

Palae Singh

.

Mastan Singh who remained PSGPC president from 2004 to 2006 told TOI over the phone from Nankana Sahib that he and his relatives owned 5.5 acres of prime land on Nankana Sahib bypass

Kot Sant Ram

which was forcibly occupied by a group of land mafia. Mastan Singh blamed on Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), the parent body of PSGPC for helping the land mafia.

Dilawar Singh said the land mafia attacked them while they were harvesting the wheat crop and beat them with batons. "Not just the ETPB but the police is also supporting the mafia" he alleged.

Sources in Nankana Sahib informed that following the incident the tension brewed between Sikhs and Muslims following which heavy security was deployed in the city.

Earlier in 2020, a group of Muslims had attacked Gurdwara Nankana Sahib after a local Sikh girl

Jagjit Kaur

converted to

Islam

to become Ayesha Bibi and married a local Muslim boy. The incident brought the two communities on brink of clash and the situation was neutralized after the intervention of top political leadership including Pakistan Punjab’s governor Chaudhary Mohammad Sarwar had to intervene to bring a truce between the two families.

While alleging that ETPB was helping the land mafia, Mastan Singh claimed that there was no tension between the two communities.

On the other hand aggrieved Dilawar Singh, in a video, said “ We call of azadi, azadi, but there is no azadi for us, for past ten years our issue was not being resolved, instead we were presented as turbaned jokers, this is no azadi of any sort” he alleged.

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