India has condemned the attack on a Sikh temple in the United States and Monday said it would ensure the community is protected amid outrage in the country over the shooting that killed six people. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, said he was deeply shocked and saddened by the incident.
"That this senseless act of violence should be targeted at a place of religious worship is particularly painful," Singh said in a statement. "I send my deepest condolences to the families that have been bereaved in this incident." Six people were killed when a gunman attacked a congregation during Sunday worship at the temple in a town outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and three wounded, including a policeman, before another officer shot the assailant dead.
"We hope that the authorities will reach out to the grieving families and ensure conditions that such violent acts are not repeated in the future," Singh added. Foreign Minister SM Krishna said senior Indian diplomats from Washington and Chicago had left for the site of the shooting. "They are in constant touch with the US administration," Krishna said.
"Every right thinking person has to condemn this incident. This is an attitude which does not fit into the pertained policy of the US where there is religious liberty like in our country," Krishna said. The Sikh community's top religious authority, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, demanded protection for Sikhs in the United States.
"This is the first time there has been such an attack on Sikhs who gathered to perform prayers at a religious place," the committee's president, Avtar Singh, said by phone from the Sikh pilgrimage town of Amritsar. "We condemn this very barbarous crime." "We have demanded that the president of the United States ensures the security of all religious places and security of all Sikh persons," Avtar Singh said.
Avtar Singh was joined by Sukhbir Singh Badal, deputy chief minister of the northern Indian state of Punjab - where a majority of Sikhs live - in demanding a thorough investigation into the attack. The Sikh religion, which originated in Punjab more than 500 years ago, has an estimated 25 million followers, more than 80 per cent of whom live in India.
Devout Sikhs do not cut their hair, which they wear in a turban, or their beards. Members of the community held prayers in temples, called gurudwaras, across India and protest marches in several cities including New Delhi where they shouted slogans against the US and carried placards saying, "Take action against the killers."
The US ambassador to India, Nancy Powell, offered prayers at a Sikh temple in New Delhi where she also offered condolences. "The United States through the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the local police will conduct a thorough investigation into this crime," Powell told reporters after visiting the temple. Earlier Monday, a US-based Sikh rights group said it would give a 10,000-dollar award to one of the police officers involved in the incident.
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