by Nadeem Badshah A COMMUNITY leader has criticised the police for meeting faith representatives without much influence and also slammed some Sikh groups for failing to attend key meetings with authorities. Harmander Singh is chairman of the National Sikh Security Forum and the Metropolitan Police Sikh Forum. He was among 40 people who attended a meeting with the Met police to discuss any civil unrest after Brexit and security concerns at places of worship. The talks at New Scotland Yard in March were part of local officers meeting community leaders across the country following the mosque terror attacks in New Zealand. Singh, who helped launch the London Boroughs Faith Network, said police “tend to pick and choose who they to engage with in communities” in order to “tick a box” rather than meet groups with more influence. He said he was the only Sikh representative who turned up to the meeting, which he admitted was an “alarmingly regular occurrence”. Singh, who has been involved in public services for nearly 40 years, told Eastern Eye: “The people who attended do pass on information to their areas but they don’t represent the plethora of organisations out there. There’s only so much they can do. “I was the only Sikh there out of the 150,000 who live in London. I am disappointed that leaders, particularly from Sikh communities, are re-active, not pro-active, when things like this [attacks] happen. “We haven’t learnt many lessons since 9/11 and lessons on good practice are not shared. “Engagement could be better from authorities, but engagement is not responded to as well as it could be from community leaders themselves. “It’s a two-way process. A community group will volunteer someone to go, [but] there’s no guarantee they will turn up and no guarantee they will feed back to…
You do not have access to this content. You need to create an account.
