PESHAWAR, Jan 5:
Unknown gunmen shot dead a 25-year-old Sikh man weeks before his marriage in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, police and the victim’s family said today, drawing sharp condemnation from India which demanded exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the crime.
The killing of Rowinder Singh comes a day after a mob attacked Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in Lahore where Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev was born.
Singh, a resident of Shangla district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was killed on Saturday night in Peshawar where he was to shop for his marriage to be held in February, police said.
“His bullet-riddled body was recovered from the area under the Chamkani police station and sent to a hospital,” police said in a statement.
“Police have already launched a probe into the killing,” the statement said.
According to the police, the victim had returned to Pakistan after spending six years working in Malaysia.
The motive behind the killing was yet to be ascertained, but an investigation is under way, police said, adding that the body will be handed over to the family members after an autopsy.
Harmeet Singh, the Rowinder’s brother, told the media that an unknown person called him from his brother’s cellphone on Saturday and informed him that “my brother was killed”.
“The Government must arrest the culprits as early as possible. I will not find peace until the criminals are arrested,” he said.
Harmeet appealed to the media and the people to highlight the incident so that his brother’s murderers can be brought to justice.
“We do not have a personal enmity with anyone. Like other cases in the country, this will also be included among those conducted by namaloom afraad (unidentified assailants),” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.
The report identified the victim as Parvender Singh.
No group has claimed responsibility for the murder which took place a day after a mob attacked Gurdwara Nankana Sahib where Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev was born.
India today strongly condemned the “targeted killing” of the minority Sikh community member Peshawar.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Pakistan should stop “prevaricating” and take immediate action to apprehend and give exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the crime.
“India strongly condemns the targeted killing of minority Sikh community member in Peshawar that follows the recent despicable vandalism and desecration of the holy Gurdwara Sri Janam Asthan at Nankana Sahib and the unresolved case of abduction, forced conversion and marriage of a Sikh girl Jagjit Kaur,” the MEA said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan today condemned the recent incident of vandalism at the Nankana Sahib, saying it goes against his “vision” and the Government will show “zero tolerance” against those involved in it.
Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, also known as Gurdwara Janam Asthan, is a site near Lahore where the first Guru of Sikhs, Guru Nanak, was born.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Friday had rejected the media reports that the Gurdwara Nanakana Sahib was desecrated in a mob attack, saying the birthplace of founder of Sikhism remains “untouched and undamaged” and the “claims of destruction” of one of the holiest Sikh shrines are “false”.
Minorities in the Muslim-majority Pakistan make up some two per cent of the country’s total population.
Pakistan has witnessed violence against religious minorities in the past as al-Qaeda and Taliban-led militants regularly target Christian, Sikhs, Hindus, Ahmadis and Shiite communities in the country. (PTI)
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