Amritsar: Reacting to a complaint lodged with Sikh's supreme temporal seat Akal Takht about cutting head and facial hairs of Sikhs jail inmates in Singapore , the Singapore Prison Services (SPS) came in defense and maintained that they provides a safe and secure environment for the incarceration and rehabilitation of all prisoners under its custody.
While denying the allegations, Senior Assistant Director, Corporate Communications and Relations Branch, Singapore Prison Service Jimmy Lee in an e mail send to TOI on Thursday stated that " The SPS has a long-standing policy where Sikh inmates who had kept their hair unshorn at the point of admission to prison are allowed to continue keeping their hair unshorn during the period of incarceration".
However the SAB's statement read that in February 2011, an allegation surfaced in the Sikh community in Singapore that the Prisons Department deviated from its hair policy for Sikh inmates in cutting the hair of a Sikh prisoner. The SAB and the Singapore Sikh leadership viewed this seriously. The SAB, immediately wrote to the Prisons' Department, expressing its concerns and stating that 'If (the allegations were) true, this was a grave matter and of utmost concern to the Sikh community'. Full story
