KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
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.
01-Jun-2021
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) asked to expedite the work on the martyrs’ gallery, dedicated to those killed during Operation Bluestar, on the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. The ‘karsewa’ for the gallery being set up in the basement of Gurdwara Shaheedan in the Operation Bluestar memorial, was entrusted to Damdami Taksal, once headed by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The ceremony was officially launched in 2017 in the presence of the then SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh and Damdami Taksal head Harnam Singh Khalsa. But the project that was aimed to be completed within a year lingered on. SGPC chief secretary Harjinder Singh Dhami said the work got affected due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. In the backdrop, the idea was to have portraits of ‘militants’ and pilgrims, who lost lives during the Army ‘assault’ in June 1984. Banking on the compensation of Rs10,000 awarded to the kin of Sikh activists in 1984, the SGPC has in its possession a list of 743 persons. On the other hand, a survey was conducted by Dal Khalsa which was compiled in a directory titled ‘Martyrs of June 1984 holocaust’ in 2006. It carried a brief about the militants and was updated twice in 2007 and 2012. The Damdami Taksal, in collaboration with the SGPC, Dal Khalsa and a US-based organisation, has prepared two lists comprising 890 persons.
01-Jun-2021
Akal Takht announced a documentary on the Army’s Operation Bluestar in its thirty-seven years anniversary. For the purpose, officiating Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has asked eyewitnesses and others to submit their experiences in a video format so that these could be compiled to recreate what happened inside the Golden Temple complex between June 1 and 10 in 1984. The idea is to have an authentic and credible account with the help of eyewitness’ interviews and interrogation reports of the Army. The Jathedar met an eyewitness, Harwinder Singh Khalsa, a ‘Panth Sewak’ awardee, to know about his experience.
31-May-2021
According to sources, the Damdami Taksal, which is working on a ‘memorial gallery’ on the premises of the Golden Temple in Amritsar to honour those who perished during Operation Blue Star, has managed to collect information of around 900 people, most of whom are militants, with hardly any data on devotees who were killed at the time. Despite the long history of politics over the issue, no Sikh body has accurate data on those killed during the operation. The spokesperson of the Damdami Taksal, Sarchand Singh said, “We have around 900 names so far. Around 80 per cent of these are Sikh fighters. We have managed to collect around 600 pictures of those killed inside Golden Temple. These pictures will be displayed in the gallery.” Asked how many devotees were killed during the operation, he put the approximate number at 3,000. A gurdwara called ‘Operation Blue Star Memorial’, was constructed in the Golden Temple premises in 2013 and the new gallery will come up in the basement of this memorial.
31-May-2021
The Dal Khalsa, in remembrance of Sikhs and pilgrims who were killed during Operation Bluestar, has decided to organise ‘Ghallughara Yadgari Samagam’ in four districts of the state from June 3 to 6. The events will be held at Moga and Mullanpur (Ludhiana) on June 3, Bhatinda on June 4 and Amritsar on June 5. The organisation called upon masses to gather at Akal Takht on June 6.
31-May-2021
Sikh and Hindu refugees living in Ludhiana have hailed the Union government’s move to invite applications from immigrants belonging to minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh for Indian citizenship.
30-May-2021
Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh flayed the Punjab government for not providing vaccine to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for organising free vaccination camps at Gurudwaras.