KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
06-Jun-2021
Harbhajan Singh posted a story on his official Instagram handle supporting the Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Posted on the 37th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, his post begins with the caption 'Salute to the martyrs'. The text in the image written in Punjabi reads, "Heartfelt tribute to those martyred in Operation inside Shri Harmandir Sahib on June 1- June 6, 1984". While Singh did not explicitly name Bhindranwale, his photo is featured prominently in the former's Instagram story.
06-Jun-2021
Twitter blocked access to four more accounts in India, including that of Indo-Canadian pop singer Jaswinder Singh Bains or JazzyB based on a request made by the government of India, under the Information Technology (IT) Act, the micro-blogging disclosed on Lumen Database. However, Twitter did not disclose as to why the access to these accounts were blocked in India.
06-Jun-2021
Various Sikh organisations observed the anniversary of the 1984 Operation Bluestar in Jalandhar. Several speakers shared their views on the need for equality among minorities and also spoke about the historical importance of the day and the lives lost to operation. Key speakers on the occasion were Ambedakar Sena president Harbhajan Suman, Imam of the Jama Masjid Phagwara Owais-Ur-Rahman, Muslim leader Ghulam Sabba and historian and speaker on the incidents of June 1984 Alliance for Sikhs Coordinator Parmapal Singh Sabhran.
06-Jun-2021
Flags, posters and placards of pro-Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale were seen during an event inside Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar in Punjab as the nation marked the 37th anniversary of the 1984 Operation Blue star. News reports shared several pictures where hundreds of people, who had gathered inside the Golden Temple, were seen with Khalistani flags and Bhindranwale's posters. Source claimed that the crowd were also seen raising pro-Khalistani slogans.
06-Jun-2021
While speaking during the 37th Operation Bluestar anniversary observed in the Golden Temple complex, Akal Takht officiating Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh emphasized maintaining unity among the Sikh community and tagged Operation Bluestar as “Chaurasi (84) Da Ghallughara (holocaust)”. Justifying the pro-Khalistan slogans, Giani Harpreet Singh said the event could never be forgotten by the Sikhs. “It is like an irretrievable wound and such slogans help them relieving their pain and anger against the atrocities of governments”, he said. Referring to blood-stained pages of the Sikh history, he said like the earlier massacres of the Sikhs in 1746 and 1762 by the Mughal empire that were termed ‘chhota ghallughara’ and ‘vadda ghallughara’ in which 7,000 and 35,000 Sikhs were killed, the 1984 Army attack was nothing short of “ghallughara”. The ‘parallel’ acting Jathedar of Akal Takht Dhyan Singh Mand, 2015 Sarbat Khalsa main organiser Jarnail Singh Sakhira, Shiromani Akali Dal - SAD (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann and actor Deep Sidhu, who was charged for provoking the Red Fort violence, were also present.
06-Jun-2021
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Prem Singh Chandumajra demanded a probe by Supreme Court (SC) judges into Operation Bluestar. Chandumajra, who is a former MP, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said guilty must be brought to book. “Here’s a request to order a high-level judicial probe, comprising at least three sitting or retired judges of the Supreme Court, into the Army attack on Golden Temple in June 1984,” he wrote. He said, “There continues to be a question mark on several aspects of this action, including the number of those killed in the shrine between June 3 and 7, 1984. The truth must prevail.”
06-Jun-2021
On the occasion of 37th anniversary of Operation Blue Star, Delhi-based Sikh Forum has sent a resolution, signed by prominent Sikhs, including former IAS and defence forces officers, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, urging them to appoint a truth and reconciliation commission to record incidents of violence against innocents during 1980s. Mentioning the Army action on Darbar Sahib and 37 other gurdwaras, the resolution said, “The Indian state ordered this aggressive action against its own people. It resulted in the death of thousands of innocent men, women and children, who had gone to the shrine to pay their homage to Guru Arjan Dev. Many Sikhs were killed elsewhere in Punjab in the military operations in June 1984. The army action was followed, in November 1984, with the horrific pogrom against the Sikh community, when again thousands of innocent Sikhs were brutally murdered in Delhi and other parts of the country.”
06-Jun-2021
Various Sikh groups held a protest at the Guru Nanak Mission Chowk in Jalandhar district on the anniversary of the Operation Bluestar.
06-Jun-2021
Irate over the increasing number of deaths due to overdose of drugs, the panchayat of Shamkhera village in Lambi of Muktsar District has appealed to drug peddlers to mend their ways and passed a resolution in this regard.
05-Jun-2021
Thirty-seven years since the Sikh Reference Library got destroyed in Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple, confusion and ambiguities still prevail over the missing rare repository of manuscripts and other artifacts that were taken away by the army. Not only the Centre, the SGPC too has failed to come up with accurate details of the items that went missing and the ones returned by the Union government latter. And now, Punjab and Haryana high Court is hearing a petition filed last year by one Satinder Singh against the SGPC after former library director Anurag Singh questioned the integrity of the SGPC in preserving the rare repository. He claimed that the army had returned the items three months after the operation and the SGPC officials received them on September 29, 1984, but many items are missing from the library now. He also alleged that some of the rare ‘birs’ were sold.
05-Jun-2021
Ahead of the Operation Blue Star anniversary on June 6 which is also a lockdown day in Punjab, security in Amritsar has been tightened with the deployment of 6,000 policemen. Like every year, this year too several Sikh organisations have announced to reach Akal Takht to observe the anniversary.
05-Jun-2021
Punjabi movie actor-turned-farmer activist Deep Sidhu has given a call on his Facebook page to reach Akal Takht on Operation Bluestar anniversary .
05-Jun-2021
Dal Khalsa organised a Ghallughara Yadgaari Samagam on the eve of Operation Blue Star in the city during the day where family members of Sikh militants that include General Shubeg Singh, Sikh student federation leader Amrik Singh, and others were honored. Later, Dal Khalsa supporters, including women and children, took out a march calling it ‘Genocide Remembrance Parade’, displaying photographs of damaged Akal Takht and Sikhs who died during the operation in 1984.
04-Jun-2021
Police arrested three drug peddlers, identified as Hans Raj alias Hans, Balwindar Singh alias Gopi and Kulbir Singh alias Lakha along with 1 kilogram heroin, one pistol and a magazine in Shahkot in Jalandhar district.
04-Jun-2021
Akhand Path Sahib started to mark the annual martyrdom ceremony on June 6, to offer homage and respect to the martyrs including Sikh men, women, and children, who got martyred during the 1984 Operation Bluestar.
04-Jun-2021
In the wake of the Covid-19 threat, Akal Takht officiating Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh appealed to the Sikh community to stay indoors and remember those who laid down their lives during the June 1984 Operation Bluestar.
04-Jun-2021
The Border Security Force (BSF) and police arrested two persons, identified as Roop Singh Valmiki and Harmesh Singh, who had allegedly gone to Khajuwala near the Sriganganagar-Bikaner highway to collect 54 packets of heroin that was pushed into India by Pakistan smugglers on the wee hour of June 4.
03-Jun-2021
According to officials, the banned terror organization, Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) planned to kill Dera Sacha Sauda follower Shakti Singh, who is an accused in three cases registered in connection with the Bargari sacrilege. However, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2015 sacrilege cases arrested him along with other accused before the KTF operatives could execute their plan, officials said. The two KTF operatives, who allegedly killed a Dera follower in Bathinda last year, were arrested by Moga police on May 22. It was revealed during the interrogation of four KTF operatives arrested by Moga police in connection with a murder case.
03-Jun-2021
Amritsar police will deploy more than 6,000 cops to keep a vigil in Amritsar on the 37th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, conducted by the army in 1984 to flush out militants hiding in the Golden Temple complex, on June 6. Since various Sikh bodies, including separatist outfits, have started organising programmes to observe the anniversary, a flag march was conducted by the police from Hall Gate to Heritage Street that leads to the Golden Temple on June 3.
03-Jun-2021
Thirty-seven years after Operation Bluestar, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has decided to put on display the bullet-riddled ‘saroop’ of Guru Granth Sahib and the gold-plated sheets of the Golden Temple that were damaged during the Army attack in June 1984. Besides, the original ‘khu’ (well), known as ‘Akalsar’, associated with the era of Guru Hargobind Singh, would also be made open for public view. The well also bore the brunt of the attack on its outer surface.
03-Jun-2021
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) informed that ‘Akhand Path’ would commence at Akal Takht from June 4 and bhog would be held on June 6.
02-Jun-2021
Police busted an interstate intoxicant tablet smuggling network with the arrest of two drug peddlers and recovered 1,15,350 tablets and 51 kg poppy husk from them in Fazilka district.
01-Jun-2021
Punjab Police arrested a suspected Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) operative, who they believe was one of the main shooters involved in the murder of a follower of the Dera Sacha Sauda and the attempted murder of a priest, identified as Kamaljeet Sharma along with four .315 bore pistols with 10 live cartridges from near village Nathuwala Jadid in Moga District. Earlier, Police arrested two of his associates Lovepreet Singh and Ram Singh from Moga on May 22. Police claim the trio had been found acting on the directions of KTF’s Canada based chief, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who has been notified as a ‘designated terrorist’ under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by the central government.
01-Jun-2021
With just days left for the 37th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is in a quandary as Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal has failed to complete a portrait gallery dedicated to those killed in action in the Golden Temple complex even as the project was assigned four years back. The radical Sikh leader, Kanwarpal Singh questioned the apex gurdwara body over the delay that, “The SGPC, being custodian of the project, must clarify about the fate of the gallery. The gurdwara body president must tell what hurdle they are facing in completing the project.” Besides militants, portraits of the devotees killed in the operation were also proposed to be installed in the gallery. The portraits will include those of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the then head of the seminary, and his military adviser Major General Shabeg Singh who helped fortify the shrine complex.
01-Jun-2021
The Akal Takht announced plans to make a documentary on the Army’s operation in June 1984, thirty-seven years after Operation Bluestar. For the purpose, the officiating Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has called up the surviving dramatis personae to submit their experience in a video format so that these could be compiled to recreate what happened inside the Golden Temple complex during those fateful days between June 1 and 10 in 1984.