The Pakistan Evacuee Trust Property Board on Tuesday kicked out Gulab Singh Shaheen, the country’s first Sikh traffic police officer, and his family out of their home in Dera Chahal village near Lahore.
Shaheen alleged that police personnel had beaten him up in April in a bid to throw him out of his house. “Pulled by my hair, I was dragged out in front of my wife Paramjit Kaur and three sons,” he said.
Shaheen’s family lived in a gurdwara in Der Chahal along with 400 to 500 Sikh families.
The board, however, claimed they were illegal occupants. “After a complete inquiry, the board’s secretary Muhammad Tariq Wazir constituted a team comprising Deputy Administrator Lahore Akram Joya, Waheed Khan, that got the hall vacated with the help of the police,” the board said in a statement. The statutory body was set up in 1960 to administer the properties and the shrines that Hindus and Sikhs left behind during the partition.
Gulab Singh Shaheen Jo k Pakistan Punjab Police da 1st Police officer Na India/Pakistan Di Partation to Pehla da Dera…
Posted by Reli King on Tuesday, July 10, 2018
“Since 1947, my family has been staying in Pakistan,” Shaheen told media. “Even after the riots, we did not leave Pakistan. Now, we are being forced to leave. My house is sealed with all my belongings including my slippers inside. Even this ‘patka’ [a type of headgear] on my head is an old rag which I just wrapped. I was harassed, beaten and my faith was disrespected.”
Shaheen said the incident highlights the atrocities committed against Sikhs in Pakistan, and urged the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee to decide the course of action.
In 2011, Shaheen filed a case against Syed Asif Akhtar Hashmi – who was chairperson of the board at the time – for illegally selling gurdwara property. In February, the Supreme Court of Pakistan found Hashmi guilty of the charges.
