Srinagar: Sikh organisations and community members staged a peaceful protest at Gurdwara Shaheed Bunga Sahib in Bagat Barzulla on Friday, demanding the restoration and promotion of Punjabi language in Jammu and Kashmir.
The demonstration was attended by representatives of the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee, Punjabi Sahit Sabha, Gurdwara Prabandhak Committees, Akali Dal and other organisations.
Community leaders and activists, including Jagmohan Singh Raina, Ajeet Singh Mastana, Dara Singh, D.P. Singh, Dr. Rekhi and Mangat Singh Jugnu, led the protest and addressed the gathering.
The protesters raised slogans in support of their demands and urged the government to take concrete steps to protect the linguistic, cultural and educational rights of the Sikh community.
They said Punjabi had deep historical, religious and cultural significance for Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir and had been spoken and preserved by generations of people in the region. They expressed concern over what they described as the language’s neglect and called for institutional support to ensure its continued use.
The protesters demanded that Punjabi be given due recognition in the educational and administrative framework, with effective measures to promote its teaching in schools and other educational institutions.
They also called for steps to ensure that younger generations remained connected with their mother tongue, arguing that the preservation of regional languages was essential to safeguarding Jammu and Kashmir’s pluralistic identity and tradition of communal harmony.
The participants urged the government to initiate dialogue with community representatives to address their concerns and take measures for the protection, promotion and restoration of Punjabi in the Union Territory.