Faisalabad (Pakistan), March 22 – According to a report in Khalsa Vox, a Sikh girl's turban was allegedly forcibly removed, and she was brutally beaten at a Christian school in the Faisalabad district (formerly Lyallpur), Pakistan.
Sikh Brotherhood International, a community organization and social media group dedicated to promoting Sikh values, has strongly condemned the incident and reportedly demanded strict action against the school administration.
Khalsa Vox reported that the victim, a Sikh girl, was a student at St. Catherine Girls High School in the Warispura area of Faisalabad.
The victim's mother, who has three other daughters and one son, claimed that her daughter's turban was allegedly removed by the school authorities, and she was also reportedly kicked and punched in the stomach after refusing to participate in Christian prayers.
The mother, who also mentioned that her daughter suffers from asthma, was further quoted in the report as saying that when her other daughter attempted to help, the teachers allegedly stopped her, claiming that she was pretending to be sick and exaggerating her pain.
The mother of the victim accused Sikh leaders in Pakistan of not providing support despite her plea for help. She demanded action against the accused for "mistreating her daughter."
According to Khalsa Vox, the victim's mother herself had also been a victim of assault before. She had previously claimed that she was illegally confined in a house by two brothers for nine months in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and that she was allegedly subjected to sexual assault and torture by them and their father.
She claimed that during her confinement, one of the accused, along with her mother, had allegedly dishonored her son's hair (a sacred aspect of Sikh identity).
Following a report by a journalist, the Minister for Minority Affairs in Punjab (Pakistan) intervened and pressured the Faisalabad police to secure her release, Khalsa Vox reported.
The report further states that members of the Sikh community in the country have been compelled to question the authorities following such heinous acts against minorities in the Muslim-dominated nation.