Srinagar (November 07, 2010): As per a ‘Kashmir Observer’ report dated 6 November, top Kashmiri leaders on Saturday severely condemned the attempted attack on Sikhs in Hatmulla, Mattan, saying that it was a bid to repeat the Chattisinghpora massacre and demanding a thorough probe into the incident.

The chairman of the Hurriyat (G), Syed Ali Shah Geelani, said that New Delhi was always engaged in attempts to malign the freedom struggle in Kashmir and that was why 36 Sikhs had been massacred in Chattisinghpora on March 20, 2000, when President Clinton was in India.

“India’s communal forces deem all minorities, including Sikhs, as a burden, and they can make scapegoats of minorities anytime to further their unholy designs,” Geelani said.

“The manner in which Sikhs were massacred in India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi proves that not only Muslims and Christians, but even Sikhs are unsafe in India and their is no guarantee for their future,” he said.

Geelani appealed to Kashmiri Muslims to organise night patrolling in Sikh localities during the Obama visit and give the community a sense of security.

The chairman of the Hurriyat (M), Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, too condemned the Mattan incident, saying that such acts should be halted forthwith as they could ignite the entire state.

The president of the Anjuman-e-Shara’I, Shiayan, Agha Syed Hassan, the chairman of the JKLF, Muhammad Yasin Malik, and the DFP president, Shabir Ahmad Shah, too, have condemned the attempted attack on Sikhs.