New Delhi : The BJP and its frontal organisations staged a protest near the Pakistan High Commission here on Wednesday against the vandalisation of a statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the neighbouring country.
The protesters, gathered at Teen Murti area of diplomatic enclave Chanakya Puri, were stopped by the police at a barricade near Pakistan High Commission compound.
Some of them were detained by the police.
Addressing the demonstrators, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said, “The way the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was vandalized in Lahore by people with fundamentalist and narrow mentality, India can never tolerate it.”
“As the BJP always talks of brotherhood and humanity, there is no place for people with fundamentalist and extremist mentality in our country,” he said.
The protesters including leaders and workers of Yuva Morcha, Purvanchal Morcha and Sikh Cell of the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raised slogans against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan demanding his apology.
“We are demanding not just an apology from Khan but also asking for his assurance to stop persecution of Hindus and Sikhs and desecration of their shrines and idols. The Pakistan government must also apologise and install a grand statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh where it was demolished in Lahore,” said Delhi BJP media cell head Navin Kumar.
The nine-feet tall cold bronze statue of the first Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh was vandalised on Tuesday at the Lahore Fort in Pakistan”s Punjab province.
India has slammed Pakistan following the vandalisation of the statue, saying Islamabad has completely failed in its duty to prevent such attacks which are creating a “climate of fear” among the minority communities.