Oak Creek: On a visit to Wisconsin to commiserate with the Sikhs after the Gurudwara shooting, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has been hit with a federal lawsuit by a US-based human rights group alleging the "torture" of Sikhs in the state.
The lawsuit contends that Badal had command and control of law enforcement officials, who "inflicted cruel and inhumane treatment and extrajudicial death" on three named plaintiffs and thousands of other unnamed members of a requested class of plaintiffs, the Journal Sentinel newspaper said.
Badal is visiting Milwaukee for a wedding and to attend the funerals of victims in Sunday's Gurudwara shooting in which six Sikhs were killed.
The US District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin has issued summons to Badal. The Chief Minister has to respond within 21 days of receiving the summons.
The 30-page complaint was filed by Avtar Singh of New York, who lists himself as coordinator of "Sikhs for Justice". The daily said Badal declined to comment about the suit, saying he hadn't seen it.
The Punjab government, however, dismissed the suit as a "cheap and desperate publicity stunt". "It is ironical that at a time when the Chief Minister is busy visiting families of the innocent victims of the tragic outrage, these elements have chosen to play havoc with the sentiments of the community by resorting to the gimmick of a civil suit, full of glaring falsehoods," said an official spokesperson.
####
Comments
0 comment