NANKANA SAHIB, Jan 10: Around 30 members of the Sikh community staged a protest demonstration outside the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) office in Court Street in Lahore on Wednesday against the arrest of Pakistan Gurdvara Parbandhak Committee’s (PGPC) former president Mastaan Singh on charges of embezzlement of the committee’s funds, sources from the Sikh community here told Dawn by telephone.

The protesters, who were demanding immediate release of the accused, smashed flower pots placed in the corridors of the ETPB office after the officials refused to accede to their demand.

“Later the protesters marched to the Tibbi City Police Station inside the walled city in Lahore where Mastaan Singh was reported to have been detained under a court order,” a source, who did not wish to be named, said.

However, the protesters dispersed peacefully after meeting the accused. The police told them the accused would be produced before the court on Thursday, the sources said.

Later in the evening, incumbent PGPC president Bishan Singh told Dawn by telephone that his predecessor was involved in the embezzlement of Rs500,000 belonging to the Sikh community pool. He said former PGPC finance secretary Ravil Singh, from whom the accused had taken the money in November 2005, had got a case registered against him after one year when the money was not returned to the committee despite repeated reminders.

“In addition to embezzlement of the community’s funds, he (Mastaan Singh) has also been involved in activities maligning the community and the whole nation of Pakistan,” the PGPC president said.

When contacted, Tibbi police SHO Maqsood Ali denied that they had detained any Sikh.

“Neither have we detained any Sikh nor has any such incident (of protest) taken place in our jurisdiction,” he said.