Badal seeks diplomatic initiative to prevent racial attacks

Expressing anguish over incidents of "religious and racial outrage" against members of the Sikh community across the globe, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Centre to make an effective and prompt intervention to stop such attacks.
Badal's plea comes in the wake of removal of turban of a Sikh-American teenager by the US authorities at New Jersey recently, an official release said today.
Taking strong exception to recurrence of such incidents world over, Badal has taken up this issue with the Centre to impress on the American authorities to take stern action against the erring officials, it said.

Badal asked the union government to resolve this issue at the earliest using all diplomatic and political channels at the highest level.
The Chief Minister said the whole of Punjab is highly sensitive to this problem faced by Sikhs settled abroad.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee have been stressing on this issue to rein in racial elements, the release said.