India must demand firm action against desecrators of Guru Granth Sahib in US: Harsimrat Kaur

Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday said India must demand the "strongest and urgent" action against desecrators of the Guru Granth Sahib in Union City, California.

"I hope and I'm going to meet Sushma ji (External Affairs Minister) and appeal to her that India must demand the strongest and most urgent actions, so that the perpetrators in California are brought to the book immediately," said Harsimrat Kaur.

She told ANI the decimation of religious scriptures was taking place and now was happening in California.

"I appeal to Sikhs worldwide to realise what these enemies of the nation and enemies of Punjab are trying to do by disrupting peace and development of Punjab. Now, they are doing the same there (in California), but the sufferers are going to be Punjabis and nobody else," Badal said.

The incident took place yesterday when pages of the Guru Granth Sahib were torn and thrown away by the miscreant.

"The incident took place last evening, when a notorious person torn the holy book into pieces. This has riled up the people of our community. We along with our community will take up this issue. And we expect that American authorities will find a solution to this and bring the culprits to the book. Moving on we also wish that police and local authorities lend us help in the matter," said American Gurudwar Committee coordinator, Pritpal Singh.

Subsequent to the incident, California mayor Eric Garcetti arrived at the protest site and assured the protestors of penal action against the miscreants who have attempted to hurt their religious sentiments.

According to reports, police have registered a complaint in the matter.