Sikhs in Pak demand religious school, official leave on festivals

The Sikh community in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has demanded that the government should set up a religious school for their children and grant official leave on their festivals, a media report said here on Thursday.

The Sikh leaders in Swat district's commercial city Mingora also demanded a community hall for them, the Dawn News reported.

The leaders said the Sikh community is living safely in Swat for the last 300 years, however, their children do not have separate religious school.

"We don't have a specific educational centre for our religious teachings in Gurmukhi language for our children. We will be grateful if government sets up a separate school for our religious teachings in Gurmukhi language," Gulzari Lala, a member of the Sikh community, said.

He said there are over 300 Sikh families living in Swat and the community needed a community hall for holding different events.

Oam Parkash, another member of the community, said many Sikhs worked in different government departments but they did not have holidays to celebrate their religious festivals.

"We demand the government to grant us official leave on our religious festivals," he said.

Deputy Commissioner Saqib Raza Aslam said all legal demands of the Sikh community would be fulfilled.