AMRITSAR: Sikh 's turban fight has now reached China after the Chinese government imposed a ban on wearing turban by Sikhs for getting identification documents besides they are being quizzed for their beard also.

While talking to TOI over phone from Yiwu city of Zhejiang province of China, about 350 kilometres from Shanghai , on Sunday, Ravinder Singh, a Delhi based businessmen who often visits China for business purposes informed that he was made to click his photograph without turban or patka for getting a SIM card of a mobile company.

"This has never happened before but for the past couple of months the Chinese government has made it mandatory for Sikhs to remove the turban or patka for getting their photographs clicked for various identification documents like driving license, extending visa etc" he said.

Stating that wearing turban was part of Sikh identity and not a fashion, he said after he refused to get photographed bare headed he was told that he couldn't get the SIM.

"Though feeling humiliated, I had to remove the turban for the photograph", he said.

There were around ten thousand strong Indian population comprising of Sikhs, Hindu's etc and majority of them gather during weekly Diwan at Gurdwara in Yiwu.

He informed that the issue was being primarily faced by Sikhs living in China on Z Visa category (work visa).

"Since Sikhs having Z visa category live in China for a long time and they have their vehicles but now they were being asked to remove their turban and patka for their photographs for getting new driving licenses or while renewing them" he said.

He informed that a few days back a turbaned Sikh was stopped by police while he was traveling in his car."He was told that if he wanted to live in China he had to remove his turban and shave his beard" he said adding that since they had to stay there and work so they chose not to come out in open fearing disclosure of their identities.

"But we all are aggrieved and feel humiliated when told to remove turban", he said.

While suggesting that it was high time, the Indian government should intervene to prevent discrimination happening to the Sikhs, Ravinder Singh said that he had also conveyed the turban and beard issue faced by Sikhs living in China to the Indian consulate in Shanghai through WeChat group but to no avail.

