Monday, February 20 2006 14:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Coinciding with the visit of French President Jacques Chirac, Sikh school children wearing turbans held a protest march here today (Feb 20 2006) against his country's ban on their religion's distinct headress at state schools.

Led by religious leader Manjit Singh, the school children carried placards urging the visiting French President to exempt Sikh pupils in France from the ban.

France banned religious symbols such as Sikh turbans and Muslim headscarves in state schools in 2004 in a move aimed at checking what officials said was the rising influence of radical Islam among France's large Muslim population.

"This march does not just challenge a law but the Western way of thinking," Singh, a senior member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and head of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthak), said.

The school children, who walked from Gurdwara Bangla Sahib to the Parliament Street, later submitted a memorandum with the French Embassy also.

In a separate memorandum addressed to Chirac, supporters of former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal also demanded the ban be revoked.

"We find no reason in imposing such a ban on turbans. Are Sikhs living there not Europeans?" asked Avtar Singh Hit, who heads Badal's party in Delhi.

Several Sikh pupils in France have been expelled from school for breaking the law.