Motorbike born assailants gunned down two Sikh businessmen on Sunday morning in Sarband, 17 km from Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, in another incident of targeted killing of minorities in that country. Saljeet Singh and Ranjeet Singh were gunned down in broad daylight by two unidentified gunmen riding a motorbike killing them on the spot. The Sikh businessmen were in spice trading and had shops in Bata Tal bazaar in Sarband. The killers have not been identified even as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, while condemning the ghastly murders, has ordered the provincial police to bring the assailants to justice.
The killing of innocent Sikh traders has sent shockwaves across this side of the border as well. Condemning the ghastly killing, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann asked External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to raise the killing with Pakistan to ensure the safety of minorities there. “I strongly condemn the gruesome killing of two Sikh youths in Peshawar Pakistan. I also request our Foreign Minister @DrJaishankar ji to speak to Pakistan the concern and ensure safety of Hindu and Sikh minorities residing in Pakistan,” Mann twitted at 3:46 pm on Sunday.
Reacting to the killing, SGPC President Harjinder Singh Dhami said, ”We strongly condemn the cowardly murders of two Sikhs, yet again. The Pakistan government should fulfil its responsibility diligently as such murders of minorities is a matter of grave concern for entire world, especially the Sikhs. We demand that the culprits should be nabbed immediately and justice should be delivered to the aggrieved families at the earliest,” said Dhami. The SGPC chief also accused the governments of both Pakistan and India of having failed in ensuring the safety of life and property of Sikhs in Pakistan who are a minority there.
As the news of the cold-blooded killing spread far and wide, the Sikh community held a big protest march in Peshawar demanding the arrest of the killers.
Ranjit Singh and Kuljit Singh are the latest victims of targeted killings. A week after an audacious attack on Nankana Saheb, the birthplace of the founder of the Sikh faith, by a frenzied mob of Muslims, Ravinder Singh, a Sikh youth, was killed in Peshawar in January 2020. Two years back in 2018, prominent Sikh community member Charanjit Singh was murdered in Peshawar. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf National Assembly member Soren Singh was killed and in 2016 again in Peshawar.