MOD Celebrates Sikh Festival Of Vaisakhi

2016-04-14: Members of the Sikh community have gathered at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in London for the first time to celebrate Vaisakhi, the annual Sikh festival. It's an important day in the Sikh calender and the MOD have hosted the event with the aim to support and celebrate the long-standing links between the Sikh community and the armed forces.

As the recruitment drive in the military continues, the push for more ethnic minorities to sign up is underway.

The religion has strong morals and principles just like the military, so how can more of the sikh community be encouraged to sign up?

Lance Corporal Pardeep Kaur from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards said:

"We need to get soldiers who serve in the Army,
we need to bring them forward and then talk to the local
who actually want to join the Army. Then they can
community come forward and talk to us and from there
we can actually put them in the right direction."

Did you know?

In 1897 21 Sikh soldiers defended a British Army post against 10,000 Afghan Tribesman.

They fought to the death defending the post in Tirah, now in modern day Pakistan.

In 2014, these brave soldiers were honoured at Sandhurst.

More from Forces TV: "Army Looking at Recruiting More Sikh Soldiers"

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