Norwich, Connecticut: USA Members and Activists of Sikh Community hold Meeting with various federal officials including Congressman office and briefed them about Torture and Mistreatment of Sikh detainees in ICE {US Immigration and Customs Enforcement} Detention Centers.
Swaranjit Singh Khalsa President Sikh Sewak Society International and Director of United Sikhs along with his team arranged this meeting with various federal representatives office including Congressman Joe Courtney Office.
Khalsa said, “ Sikhs came and choose to live in America because Indian Govt. committed Sikh Genocide in 1984 and because of continuous mistreatment with Sikhs in India”. If America won’t understand the pain of these people then who will. Sikh Detainees don’t want to go back to India as their lives are in danger and most of them already applied for Political Asylum and have no criminal background.
A case of 1992 Born Harpreet Singh was specially discussed by his brother Resham Singh from Newyork.
Harpreet Singh is under detention in Folkston Ice Processing Center in Georgia and being tortured by ICE officials because he and other Sikhs chose to go on Hunger Strike as a way to protest against mistreatment.
It’s been 10 days he is on hunger strike and he was made to remove all of his clothes and was given a cold shower and was detained naked for two days in cold air conditioning. A lot of detainees are suffering from Chickenpox and that’s why their attorneys are not even allowed to meet them.
On Similar lines, Sikhs detained in EL Paso and Otero detention centre were force-fed after hunger strike was started by them. Many Sikhs Civil rights organizations including SALDEF, Sikh Coalition and United Sikhs are working on addressing this issue by meeting federal level representatives so this inhumane behaviour by ICE can be stopped.
Swaranjit Singh Khalsa said now this case of Harpreet Singh and other Sikhs in the various detention centre are in the knowledge of US senators and Congressman’s office and we can hope some action can be taken to stop this human rights violation.