Cong. seeks security for Sikhs in J&K

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 24. A Congress(I) delegation led by the party president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, today submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, urging the Centre to take immediate steps to provide adequate security to all minority communities in Jammu and Kashmir. It warned that unless this was done, there would be another wave of mass migrations from the Kashmir Valley.

The memorandum follows the massacre of Sikhs in Chani Singhpore village in the Valley by militants four days ago. The Congress(I) demanded that proper security arrangements be made for the 130- odd Sikh-dominated villages in the Valley.

The memorandum deplored the `inadequate' attention given by the State and Central Governments to the incident and said that the Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, had made only a very short, cursory tour of the area. The memorandum also said that after the attacks on the Kashmiri Pandit community, it should have been obvious that the Sikhs, another minority community, were also at grave risk. But both the State and Central Governments ``chose to turn a blind eye'' to this danger.

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. Ahmed Patel, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr. Balram Jakhar and Mrs. Ambica Soni, who visited Chani Singhpore yesterday to condole the bereaved families on behalf of the Congress(I), accompanied Mrs. Gandhi to submit the memorandum. They told presspersons that a fear psychosis prevailed amongst the villagers. Mr. Jakhar charged the State Government with being totally ineffective. He also said there was anger over the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, not visiting the village.

According to Mr. Azad, the militants were clearly backed by Pakistan.

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