He said, “Keeping the ‘saroops’ confiscated at a police station is a big disrespect which cannot be tolerated. This matter was recently brought to the attention of Akal Takht Jathedar by United Kingdom-based Bhai Kanhaiya Humanitarian Aid following which the SGPC was asked to pursue the matter.”

In his letter to EAM S Jaishankar and ambassador to Qatar Vipul, Dhami stated that Bhai Kanhaiya Humanitarian Aid came to know that a Sikh man was arrested by the Doha police in Qatar in December last year who was later released, but the two ‘saroops’ taken from him are still kept in Al Wakara police station by the Doha police. Dhami mentioned that the Sikh who was arrested and released in Doha had been practising the Sikh faith privately along with local community members in a gurdwara established in his private property at Birkat Al-Awamer without any public display due to strict restrictions of Qatar government on the non-Islamic faiths’ public worship, etc.

Dhami sought release of ‘saroops’ and their reinstallation on the same premises.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal too wrote to Jaishankar to take up the issue. She said the Sikh ‘sangat’ of Qatar was perturbed at the manner in which two ‘saroops’ had been seized around eight months back. She said ‘prakash’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib had been going on at two places in Doha for the last nearly 35 years. She also appealed to him to take up the issue of establishment of ‘gurdwaras’ in Qatar so that Sikhs could practice their religion freely. “Sikhs feel that they too should be allowed to worship in gurdwaras in the same manner as Christians. As gurdwaras are allowed in some other Islamic countries, including neighbouring Dubai (UAE), the Qatari government may also be requested to allow the Sikh community to establish its own gurdwaras on the same pattern in Qatar,” she suggested.