A 24th anniversary Salute to the Sikh martyrs of the June 1984 Indian army’s cowardly attack on Sri Akal Takht Sahib in Amritsar
Buffer state of Khalistan is the ONLY option for the Sikhs
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - Twenty four years ago, on June 03, 1984, the then Prime minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi of the Nehru Dynasty, ordered a massive Indian army attack, on Sikhism's holiest site (its sanctum sanctorum) the Akal Takht Sahib, located in the Darbar Sahib complex in Amritsar. The holy shrine was packed at that time with pilgrims observing the anniversary of the martyrdom of Siri Guru Arjan Sahib, the fifth Guru of the Sikhs. For Sikhs, the memory of that murderous June 1984 Indian army attack, nay a brazen act of state terrorism, during which thousands of innocent Sikhs were murdered, is a 'diary', written in blood and engraved on their hearts, they carry about with them where ever they go.The June 1984 brutal military action was synchronized with assaults on thirty seven other holy Gurdawaras located in the Sikh homeland of Indian Occupied Punjab. Thousands of Sikh pilgrims - men, women and children - who had congregated for prayers, on the anniversary of Guru Arjan Sahib’s martyrdom, were brutally gunned down inside the Darbar Sahib complex, under a complete news blackout enforced in the Punjab. The Akal Takht, the Sikh seat of sovereignty, was destroyed in the attack. The historical Sikh Reference Library and Museum were also systematically looted, and the priceless artifacts carted away in government trucks to a still secret location, and the building housing them was burned to the ground. The artifacts have not been returned to this day! As a Sikh writer put it. "The Indian army went into Darbar Sahib (also called Golden Temple Complex in the West) not to eliminate a political figure or a political movement but to suppress the culture of a people, to attack their heart, to strike a blow at their spirit and self-confidence." Another Sikh author has also aptly put it by saying that, "The Darbar Sahib is the Vatican, the Mecca, and the Jerusalem of the Sikhs. The Indian Army's brutal pre-planned attack on the heart of the Sikh faith was an attempt to defame and humiliate the entire Sikh community. The Indian Government's consistent attempts to humiliate Sikhs have not succeeded. Today, we stand before God as a community committed to peace and justice. The Sikh community's appeals of transparency, accountability, and restitution to the Indian Government have been ignored as not being in the interest of peace. Justice for Sikhs in India has been denied."
In his 1984 book “Army Action in Punjab: Prelude & Aftermath” (New Delhi: Samata Era Publication, 1984, pp. 46-48) C.K.C. Reddy, a fair-minded Hindu, writes that, “The whole of Punjab and especially the Golden Temple Complex, was turned into a murderous mouse trap from where people could neither escape nor could they seek succor of any kind…The way the dead bodies were disposed of adds to the suspicions regarding the number and nature of the casualties...The bodies of the victims of military operation in Punjab were unceremoniously destroyed without any attempt to identify them and hand them over to their relatives…So even the courtesy and honor customarily shown to the dead soldiers of the enemy was not shown to our dead countrymen, since those killing them were our own soldiers. Because the government had decided to exterminate these victims physically they ceased to exist as persons deserving any honor of human dignity. We lack even the civility of the British imperialists, who after the (April 13, 1919) Jalianwala blood bath instituted the Hunter Commission to make a thorough enquiry into the events. The (Delhi) government, after the operation, on the other hand, did every thing in its power to cover up the excesses of the army action…The most disturbing thing about the entire operation was that a whole mass of men, women, and children were ordered to be killed merely on the suspicion that some terrorists were operating from the Golden Temple and other Gurdwaras. There had been no judicial verdict of guilt against definite individuals who had been taking shelter in the Golden Temple." End quote.
Another Hindu writer, Ram Narayan Kumar, has observed (in “Reduced to Ashes” - Volume One - Asia Forum for Human Rights, Kathmandu, Nepal, May 2003, pp. 75) that, "On the strength of constitutional features, India claims to be the largest functional democracy in the world where wide-spread human rights abuses, systematic persecution of estranged communities and suppression of political dissent cannot occur. However, the experiences of the Sikhs in Punjab show that as a demonized community targeted for abuse by the authorities, they had no protection from the leaders of the supposedly independent institutions, including the judiciary, either in shielding their fundamental rights against imminent violations or in obtaining acknowledgement and legal restitution of wrongs. Freedom of discourse remained an empty promise which even the higher judiciary joined the chorus to turn the page and obliterate the victims' memory on the grounds that a public discussion and scrutiny focusing on past abuses and the role of institutions would undermine the interests of peace and social order."
That June 1984 wanton act of armed aggression permanently hurt the psyche and laid the foundation of a Sikh buffer state (Khalistan) in the mind of every Sikh. Twenty four years have gone by, since the June 1984 Indian Army attack on Akal Takht Sahib, but that dark event has left a long permanent shadow 'engraved in concrete' on the inner soul of the Sikh nation. Nothing can eraze that. Nothing! "Time makes more converts than reason" is a well known truism. Indeed, time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind. And the shadow is the state of Khalistan, as far as Sikhs are concerned. No wonder on a bright and sunny Saturday, on April 26, 2008, thousands of Sikh Americans attending the colorful 21st Vaisakhi Sikh Day Parade, in New York’s Madison Avenue Park, saw and heard Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti endorse the Sikh right of self-determination to seek a democratic water/food-rich buffer state of Khalistan in South Asia.
The June 1984, Indian Army attack was by no means undertaken as a result of a law and order situation as Indian dezinformatsiya keeps repeating. That is a lie and typical Indian disinformation. The Indian ruler in June 1984, Prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, a Brahmin, and the daughter of the first Indian prime minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, wanted to break the spirit and political will of the Sikh community, a besieged, but defiant, people - a muscular minority captive in India - who take pride in their 500 years history of tolerance, equality, piety, justice, military muscle and generosity and who DO NOT and will not accept a social/economic order which calls for a morally repugnant oligarchic dynastic Caste System geared for the needs and ambitions of a miniscule Brahmin (4% of India’s population) minority, as a fundamental pillar of society.
In the final analysis, the Khalistan movement, for a democratic Sikh majority buffer state, has gained strength and acquired international dimensions, since June 1984, with unwavering support of the three million strong pro-Khalistan Sikh diaspora, and is receiving sympathy from freedom-loving individuals of every nationality. Since June 1984 a fire burns in every Sikh's ‘belly’ to create an independent, sovereign, democratic and egalitarian Sikh buffer state of Khalistan. Passage of twenty four years since the June 1984 attack has not reduced the burning desire of the Sikhs for that buffer state - Khalistan - which will stretch from the River Jumna in the East to the Pakistan border on the West, Kashmir in the North and China on the North East and act as a bridge of peace and commerce between the seven 'Stans' (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakistan) of Central Asia and the countries of South Asia. To part company with the unjust, Caste-ridden, oligarchic India, and its morally repugnant Brahmin-caste-dominated rulers, has become the national goal of the 26 million strong Sikh nation.
The prediction that a Sikh state will be established in South Asia was made by none other than the greatest Sikh of the 20th Century, Shaheed Sant Jarnail Singh Bhimndrawale, who foresaw this development prior to his martyrdom on June 06, 1984, when he fell bravely defending the Akal Takht Sahib during the armed assault conducted by Indian Army soldiers equipped with tanks, artillery, helicopter gun ships etc., and other deadly instruments of war. His prediction was that, “the foundation stone of Khalistan will be laid on the day the Indian army attacks the Darbar Sahib.” (Please also read the Khalistan Calling, dated June 11, 2003, headlined, "Sant Jarnail Singh Bhinranwale declared a martyr in Darbar Sahib function," by clicking at the following link:> http://www.khalistan-affairs
.org/home/khalistancalling <)/2003/june11.aspx According to a report, by Varinder Walia, in the Tribune of June 3, 2008, the Indian rulers are so scared of the memory of Shaheed Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, 24 years after his death, that they have placed the Chairman of the Kashmir Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, under house arrest in Srinagar. The government wants to prevent Geelani from attending a joint inter-faith conclave, (> http://www.tribuneindia.com
/2008/20080603/punjab1.htm#1 <) of Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, organized by the nationalist pro-Khalistan Dal Khalsa, to be held on June 4, 2008, in Amritsar, on the 24th anniversary of the Indian army attack on Darbar Sahib, a cowardly action sometimes also called Operation Bluestar. According to the HINDU newspaper Geelani in a statement has, ‘accused the Jammu and Kashmir government of caving into pressure from the Centre in preventing him from going to Amritsar to attend a seminar organized to commemorate Operation Blue Star.’ Mr. Geelani, who is under house arrest for the past three days, said at a news conference that the Union government could not stop the “people from demanding right of self determination be it in Punjab or Kashmir.” Geelani condemned his detention, saying: “the State government has taken dictation from New Delhi and stopped me as they know that I would talk about genuine and just rights of people.” (> http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/04/stories/2008060455731300 <).htm On the twenty fourth anniversary of the June 1984 'Ghallughara' we bow our heads in respect and salute the memory of Shaheed Sant Jarnail Singh Bhinranwale and the thousands of Sikh martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for the Sikh nation, so that future generations may be able to enjoy the 'glow of freedom' in a democratic independent and sovereign buffer state of Khalistan. Each one of us should vow to carry on the mission of the martyrs and make the following prophesy, come true with ‘people power’:-
"DILLI Takht Par Bahaygee; Aap Guru Kee Fauj; Chattar Chulayn`gay Sis Par; Barri Karaygee Mauj."
TRANSLATION:-
"The Guru's Sikh Army will sit on the Delhi throne (currently occupied by the Brahmins) and there will be peace, justice and prosperity for all."