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Intra-Sikh fight in Manila over gurdwara control
WSN Network

MANILA: Two Filipino-Indian groups are battling for control over the Khalsa Diwan Sikh gurdwara in Paco, Manila. It is the richest, oldest and largest institution of Punjabis here.

Incidentally, a senior management member was killed in the turf war for supremacy in the predominantly Sikh organization whose coffers are estimated to hold some P100 million.

The Khalsa’s duly-elected president, Bhagwant Rai Bansal, survived an ambush in 2006, allegedly staged by rivals whom he charged for misusing more than P30 million. Now, he claims to have received another death threat because he opposed another leader Gurmeet Singh Samalsar, whose faction managed to take over the gurdwara last May. Samalsar was earlier a vice president under Bansal, and is now the new leader of the Khalsa Diwan since a controversial election. Philippines has more than 200 Gurdwaras that draw thousands of worshippers during weekends.

24 September 2008
 

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