[ad_1]
Activists from various Sikh organisations hold placards and shout slogans during a demonstration on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Slogans favouring Khalistan (sovereign state for Sikhs) were raised on Thursday in the premises of the Golden Temple complex in Punjab’s Amritsar during the 40th anniversary of ‘Operation Bluestar’, even as most of the commercial establishments and educational institutions remained closed in the city amid the call given for ‘Amritsar shutdown’ by radical Sikh outfits to commemorate the day.
Supporters and activists of radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa, Sikh hardliners led by radical Sikh leader and president of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) Simranjit Singh Mann raised slogans of ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ during the congregation of Sikh devotees. Some youth were seen wearing outfits with photographs of slain separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in Canada last year as they hailed his sacrifice and vowed to continue their struggle for Khalistan.
It was on June 6, 1984, when the Army had stormed the complex of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, to flush out extremists led by Bhindranwale.
Bandi Sikhs
Addressing the gathering, Giani Raghbir Singh, chief priest of the Akal Takht — the highest Sikh temporal seat — raised the issue of ‘Bandi Sikhs’ (Sikh prisoners who had completed their terms) saying that not releasing the Sikh prisoners and not punishing the perpetrators of the November 1984 anti-Sikh riots even after 40 years is an unfair treatment of the Union government towards the Sikhs.
He said Sikhs played a leading role in the country’s freedom struggle against the British, but the promises made by the leaders of our own country were forgotten after Independence. Even government officials were issued orders to keep a suspicious eye on the Sikhs, terming them as a ‘criminal tribe’, he added.
Earlier on Wednesday evening, radical Sikh outfit members including Dal Khalsa, SAD (Amritsar) among others held a ‘remembrance march’ in Amritsar amid beefed up security across the city to mark the operation’s anniversary.
[ad_2]
Source link
