A protest rally was organised by some members of Sikh Community in Kolkata yesterday night against the Mamata government after police assaulted a Sikh man and pulled off his turban during the protest march held by BJYM and BJP workers on October 8 against the rising political killings in the state.
The Sikh protestors demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “CM Mamata Banerjee please explain why the turban of a Sikh has been pulled by your police. You should explain or leave the chair”, the protestors demanded. Surinder Singh, one of the protestors, said that the cops should be punished. “We are aggrieved over the way a member of our community has been treated by the lawmakers. We demand punishment of the cops who committed such act”, he said.
Giving themselves a clean chit, the West Bengal police said that they respected all religions. Justifying their act, the West Bengal police posted a tweet saying that Balwinder Singh was carrying firearms.
The concerned person was carrying firearms in yesterday’s protest. The Pagri had fallen off automatically in the scuffle that ensued,without any attempt to do so by our officer (visible in the video attached). It is never our intention to hurt the sentiments of any community(1/2) pic.twitter.com/aE8UgN36W5
— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) October 9, 2020
The Sikh man named Balwinder Singh is a former Indian Army soldier and was kept by BJP leader Priyangu Pandey as a private security officer. During the violence unleashed by the West Bengal police on the Nabanna rally, Singh was brutally assaulted by the police and his turban was pulled off. The video of the incident had gone viral o social media in which the cops can be clearly seen attacking Singh and pulling off his turban. The act of police of disrespecting the Sikh turban drew a lot of criticism. However, the West Bengal police had later issued a statement and said that the turban fell of automatically.
BJYM Head and Member of Parliament Tejasvi Surya had said that he would move a privilege motion against the state government officials who manhandled the BJP leaders ho had gone to the police station to file an FIR against the attack on Nabanna rally.
