By Arul Louis

United Nations, Apr 14 (IANS): A group of Sikhs held a protest against atrocities against minorities and Dalits in India during B.R. Ambedkar's birth anniversary celebrations here.

About 25 Sikhs, some wearing black turbans and others black bands, held up posters and silently turned their backs on India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin as he spoke on Friday.

Unperturbed, Akbaruddin continued with his speech and no action was taken inside the conference room against the protesters.

The president of the Youth Akali Dal (Amritsar) US, Amandeep Singh told IANS that the group wanted to "expose the hypocrisy" of the Indian government celebrating Ambedkar's birthday before the world while his ideals were violated in India by the atrocities against Sikhs, Muslims, Christians and Dalits.

He said the Golden Temple was violated and thousands of Sikhs have been killed then and later during riots but no action has been taken against many important persons responsible for the killings.

Singh said the protest was held on behalf of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

As the protesters filed outside the conference room, they were stopped by security personnel, who confiscated their posters and all the papers they had and let them go with a warning that such activities were not allowed inside the UN.

Several security personnel, including emergency services officers in black uniforms, rushed to the conference room entrance but only a couple of them entered the room unobtrusively to keep watch.