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Prominent Indian Sikh leaders appealed to Muslim separatist groups Monday to protect their community in India's troubled Kashmir region following a massacre.
Bhai Ranjit Singh, former Head of the Akal Takht, the highest religious seat of the Sikh community, said his community had protected the Muslim minority in the Sikh- dominated state of Punjab.
"In a similar fashion the Kashmiri Sikhs should be protected by the majority Muslims," he told a special meeting of Sikh-Muslim leaders called to re-establish trust between the communities.
The meeting was attended by Muslim separatist leaders such as Yaseen Malik, Shabir Shah and Abdul Gani Lone.
"Those who are trying to create a wedge between the two communities should be unmasked and crushed ... and that is the duty of the separatist leaders to investigate," said Ranjit Singh.
Harminder Singh Gill, Chief of the All India Sikh Student Federation (AISSF), added: "No Sikh in Kashmir is going to migrate."
A section of the Sikh community in Kashmir had threatened to migrate from the region following the massacre, but Sikh leaders from Punjab and New Delhi who came to attend the 10th day religious ceremony for those killed appealed to them to stay.
The Muslim leaders said they would investigate the February 3 attack when unidentified gunmen fired indiscriminately at a gathering of Sikhs, killing six and injuring five others.
Some 50,000 Sikhs live in Indian-held Kashmir which comprises five million people, mostly Muslims.
Last March, 35 Sikhs were killed by unidentified gunmen at Chittisinghpora village in southern Kashmir.
Indian security forces and Muslim
separatist guerrillas have traded allegations of responsibility for both
massacres.
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