On Thursday morning, Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Sikh leader and businessman, was shot dead in Surrey, Canada. He had been involved in the 1985 Air India bombing case, but was acquitted in 2005. Despite repeated attempts, The VOICE could not get any information from the Surrey RCMP.
They said they would be sending out a press release in half an hour and declined to divulge any details. Leader Ripudaman Singh Malik, who lives in Canada, runs Khalsa schools there and was cleared of the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing by the Canadian judiciary in 2005. The schools also teach Punjabi language and culture, and include summer classes in the Sikh religion, including kirtan.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Malik has asked for several steps that the government has taken for the Sikh community. The Modi government has taken unprecedented positive steps to redress the long-standing demands of Sikhs, including eliminating blacklists that prevented thousands of Sikhs living abroad from visiting India, issuing passports and visas to asylum seekers and their families, reopening hundreds of 1984 riots cases, leading to convictions and jail time for some, and declaring the 1984 riots as a genocide by then Home Minister Rajnath Singh in parliament. The government has also granted compensation of Rs.
5 lakh per family to the victims of the anti-Sikh genocide, opened a corridor connecting Sri Kartarpur Saheb so that pilgrims can visit the holy place of our first Guru, Guru Nanak. He also expressed his joy at the announcement that December 26 will be known as Veer Baal Diwas (martyrdom day of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons). Some foreign powers, who want to destabilize India and threatened its national integrity, are working through some misguided members of the Sikh community, said Singh.
This was while he expressed his concerns about an orchestrated campaign against Modi’s government and India by some sections of the Sikh community. Despite this, Singh promised to work with the Indian government to resolve pending issues. In another letter addressed to the Sikh community, Singh asked them to stop this malicious campaign. In his letter, Singh also expressed that he doesn’t believe that it is right to unfairly blame the Prime Minister for all of the communities suffering.
Instead, he said that people should be thanking the Prime Minister for all of his positive efforts towards the Sikh community, and be working with the government under his leadership in a positive way for the future. Violence in Punjab has a negative impact on the interests of Sikhs throughout India and around the world, says Harpreet Singh in his letter. He says that he does an Ardaas daily for world peace, because he does not want to see his community or any other community suffering because of violence.
In 2005, the Canadian judicial system found Malik not guilty of causing the Air India Kanishka bombing. He runs Khalsa schools in Canada, and the schools also teach Punjabi language and culture in addition to the Vancouver Education Board curriculum. During the summer, students learn about the Sikh religion, including kirtan.
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