February 21, 2002	Thursday	Zilhaj 8, 1422

MONTREAL, Feb 20: The management of a Canadian school is facing a court threat from parents of a turban-clad Sikh teenager who wants to wear a metal dagger in his classroom as part of his religious faith.

The board of the government-run school here says that the 12-year-old Gurbaj Singh won’t be allowed into classroom until he agrees to carry a plastic replica of his dagger called ‘kirpan’ — a solution other Sikh students in Quebec have adopted.

But the parents of the Sikh boy are insisting that the compromising formula is not acceptable to them and their son.

They are insisting that the boy be allowed to wear a 10-centimetre-long metal ‘kirpan’ to school with him, since it is considered an integral part of his faith.

They are intending to take the matter to the court of law.

“We have hired a prominent human rights lawyer, Julius Grey, to represent us in the court,” they said.