A former chief ofPakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandak Committee (PSGPC), has been sent to two-day police custody by a court in a blasphemy case for attacking a Gurdwara in Nankana Sahib in the Punjab province and chanting anti-Pakistan slogans.
Police had registered a blasphemy case against Sardar Mastan Singh and his 25 accomplices, mostly Sikhs, for allegedly attacking a Gurdwara in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak, and chanting anti-sate slogans on the complaint of PSGPC incumbent president Sardar Sham Singh.
"We have arrested Mastan Singh on Friday evening and produced him before adistrict court Nankana Sahib yesterday. The judge remanded him into police custody for a two-day physical remand," Nankana City Police Station official Amin Ahmed told PTI.
He said Mastan would be produced before the court again tomorrow and police would seek for more physical remand for interrogation.
Meanwhile, theSikh Community in Nankana Sahib, some 80 kilometers from Lahore, today held a demonstration against the arrest of Mastan and registration of what they call a 'fake' blasphemy case against him and 25 others.
"Werequest the international Sikh community and human rights organisation to pressure the Pakistani government for immediate release of Mastan Singh and quashing the fake FIR," local Sikh leader SardarHerdyal Singh said.
He said Mastan and other Sikhs in Nankana Sahib on November 25 - during 547th birthday anniversary celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak - surrounded Evacuee Trust Property Board's (ETPB) Chairman Siddiqul Farooq and protested for not being permitted to take out a rally.
"The Sikhs demanded permission to take out a nagar kirtan from Gurdwara Nankana Sahib to Gurdwara Kyara Sahb but their request was turned down due to which Sikhs community protested. The ETPB took revenge from the local Sikh community by registering a blasphemy case against its members and arresting Mastan Singh," he said.
The FIR has been registered under section 295-A (blasphemy), 123-A (anti-state slogans), 440, 506, 186 and 147 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
"The suspects has not only desecrated gurdwaras/temples but also damaged integrity of the State of Pakistan," the FIR quotes complainant Sham Singh as having said.
ETPB Chairman Siddiqul Farooq also denied his institution's role in getting the FIR registered.
