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		Local Sikhs lobby European Parliament Thursday, 1st June 2006 Brussels - A delegation of Sikhs from the East Midlands, including Gurjeet Ssamra from Leicester and Gurmel Singh Bollla from Derby visited Brussels yesterday to lobby local MEPs. They met with Conservative MEPs Roger Helmer and Chris Heaton-Harris in a local restaurant, after security staff had refused the Sikhs entry to the parliament while wearing their "kirpaan", or ceremonial daggers. It is a religious duty for Sikhs to carry the dagger at all times, and they were therefore unable to remove them. The Sikhs raised four areas of concern with the MEPs. They want an independent investigation into the massacres of Sikhs in India in the 1980s following the Golden Temple incident and the assassination of former President Indira Ghandi. They are worried about Sikh political prisoners who they say are held in Indian jails without due process. They also expressed concerns about the banning of religious clothes and symbols in some EU countries, and they also want an independent Sikh homeland in the Punjab. The MEPs agreed to raise the issues of the massacre and the detentions with the Indian government. They expressed sympathy with the Sikh position on the remaining points, but were reluctant to interfere in the internal affairs of other EU member states, or to call for territorial changes in the Indian sub-continent. Commenting on the visit, Mr Helmer said: "I realise that I was poorly informed on these Sikh issues, so I am most grateful to our Sikh visitors for briefing us on them, and for sharing their thoughts with us. I regard myself as a friend of India, and I should be sorry to see these allegations tarnish India's reputation as a modern democracy. But we need to get to the facts, so Chris and I will be taking up the allegations with the Indian government".