Blah Blah from The TeaBreak Team.

A Sikh woman who was widowed during the 1984 riots, at a demonstration near the Parliament House in Delhi.

Remembering 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots

by Zaheer-ul-Hassan

Few days back hundred of e-letters arrived in my mail box and all these were in particular response to my article “Pitching Sikhs against Muslims “. One email out of these so many, was so moving that I almost felt compelled to present it before my readers as well as to the attention of worthy Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The characters of the email have been changed for obvious reasons.

The email unveils the tragic plight of eighty years old Mrs. Balwant Singh of Amritsar, who is still waiting for her 12 years old Balbir Singh, who went to bazaar for buying bread (Chappaties) for her but, was shot by the soldier of the Indian army.

The poor old lady doesn’t know that her son proceeded to bliss and would never come back .When somebody invites the respectable lady, she says “Mera Balbir aaway ga Te phair akkathay khaNwaN ge“  (let my Balibir come and we will have meal together). After this she picks up the photograph of her son and starts kissing him madly. At times, starts crying or giggling suddenly.

The email sender further added that “condition of Balwant Kaur made me sad and sob”. Till the time I stayed there, she kept on asking “Puttar go to Bazaar and call my Balbir. May be he will listen to your call and come. After such a long time, he too may be burning with a longing as I am”.

The email made my day sad too and reminded me the never-ending saga of  Indian state terror against minorities. The Indian excessiveness almost touches barbarism. A famous Indian Sikh scholar Balbir Singh Sooch tersely remarks “Individual terrorism has always an end but the state terrorism ends never.” If terrorists don’t wish to be humans they should better be with the State.”

Lt Col Prohit and his comrades are the exact translation of the mentioned quotation. These terrorists were involved in storming militancy with the support of their mother agency RAW.

Indian government and their intelligence agencies have always tried to divert the world attention from their internal communal violence by targeting neighbouring states like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Recently, The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh showed his concern over displacement of 35 Sikhs of Pakistani nationality living in Orakzai Agency. They were allegedly asked by Taliban militants to pay “Jaziya” for their protection otherwise leave the agency.

Strange enough, the Indian Prime Minister did n’t forget to talk about those 35 Sikhs of Orakzai Agency but  Manmohan Jee seems to have no concern for those two million Sikh families who were victimized on June 6, 1984. The wounds of those innocent Sikhs become afresh on June 6th, every year which have ever lasting effect on lives of the grieved families. There is no end to their sufferings. No one knows when Indian government will be able to reign in the notorious RAW from playing with the lives of minorities, be they the Sikhs, the Muslims, Christians or the Dalits.

Its no more a secret now that the extremist Hindus are backed by wicked politicians of ruling party. They are making every effort to eliminate the Sikhs by using tactics of creating hatred between Muslims and the Sikhs. The prime objectives of such government agencies always revolves around machinations that could generate rifts between these two communities which could provide a chance to extremist Hindus of killing two birds with one stone.

Historically too, Hindus had been the principal beneficiary of 1947 partition riots. They prepared the plot to eliminate Sikh and Muslim communities because of their self generated fear of emergence of two more future states i.e. Muslim Bengal and Khalistan.

Hindu extremists always have had strong desires to convert India into a “Maha Bharat “, which in other words would be a pure Hindu State.

To achieve their goal, the extremist Hindu groups present in the CBI and RAW are facilitating the Hindutva gangs and militant outfits who strongly believe that either minorities living in India should convert themselves to Hinduism or just leave India. No wonder that the Indian intelligence agencies are always on the move to defame Sikhs and others minorities.

I wouldn’t have known all about this, had I not read the book “Soft target” written by two Canadian Journalists (Mr. Zuhair Kashmeri & Brian McAndrew). The authors very vividly revealed RAW conspiracy against Sikhs. The book unveils how did the Indian intelligence blew its own Air India plane out of the skies over international waters, just to denigrate the Sikh nation and to muffle their voice for reclamation of lost Sikh Sovereignty.

In this tragic act of terrorism in the air, 329 people mostly Canadians were murdered through bombing. The whole act was planned and implemented by RAW in June 1985. The blowing of the aircraft was planned in tune with the first anniversary of Golden Temple and Holocaust of Sikhs.

Brij Mohan Lal and Surinder Malik were the two intelligence guys who were posted in Canada at that time. The former Chief of Indian Intelligence Bureau was the mastermind & was an active member of the RSS, involved in the Air India Plane bombing. His mission was to sabotage & defame the Sikhs in Canada and the world. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was the agency that did a tremendous job of raising the curtain to show the real script editors and actors of this tragic drama. The Canadian agency chased the culprits’ right to the Indian embassy and consulates and ultimately alleged Ripudaman Singh Malik, 58, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 55 who were indicted by the Canadian judge from the charges of murder of 331 persons of Air India Bombing.

It was thus proved that the Indian security forces and its intelligence agencies were involved in slaughter of Sikh nationals of Canada with a view to suppress their demands of Khalistan. Another climax in the history of Indian brutality against Sikhs was the Operation Blue Star.

The operation was conducted against Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple from 4- 6 June 1984. Simultaneously at the time military attacked on Harmindar Sahib, 38 other Sikh temples were also embattled throughout the Eastern Punjab. Over 20,000 Sikhs were murdered.

The assault on Golden Temple was without any warning. Heavy artillery, tanks, Howitzer guns, and other mechanized weapons were used against innocent Sikhs. Surprisingly, the attack coincided with the religious celebrations on the occasion of the birthday of the Fifth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Arjan Dev Ji, who too was martyred while defending the dignity of the Sikhs.

Two main conclusions can easily be drawn from this macabre orchestration of the events, firstly: to humiliate the highest spiritual leadership of Sikhs and secondly to terrorize, crush the Sikh nation, humiliate and desecrate their dignity and their places of worship, the places from which every Sikh draws inspirations and finally to kill forever the struggle for Khalistan. As reported by the Amnesty International on May 28, 2008 over the last 14 years more than 250,000 Sikhs have been exterminated / tortured by Indian governments. The report further mentions that there were gross violations of human rights, including in Nandigram, in west Bengal, Kashmir and other parts of India. It is worth noting here that since 1989 Indian forces and the Indian intelligence have also murdered more than 200,000 innocent Muslims including Kashmiris. 6,300 women have been raped in various overt and covert operations through state sponsored terrorism.

The Sikhs even to this day clamor for the government to take action against EX Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, but Indian intelligence the RAW and the CBI with their totally biased investigations have declared him neat and clean. Then again in 2000, while the former US President Clinton visited India, these two state organs of Indian Union planned riots against Sikhs in which 38 Sikhs were killed and the blame was thrown on local Muslims.

However, to the good luck of the Muslims, the Sikh leaders smelt the rat when they came to know the actual plan and thus rejected the trick of blaming Muslims for anti-Sikh riots. It was fortunate for the Sikhs who read between the lines, how the incident was masterminded and by whom and for the Muslims as Sikhs never got up against Muslims in India.

But viewed in the overall context, the Hindutva politicians have been conspiring not only against Muslims but also toward the Sikh nation as a whole. This breed of Hindu fanatics came out of their camouflaged secularism when they played their “Bloody Holly’ with the Sikhs when late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered. The notorious former Minister (with his special fathom for all non Hindu communities in India) Tytler sent an email to all local Hindu leaders demanding that Khoon Ka Badla Khoon Se LaiNge “ (now there will be blood for blood). So a mayhem was started, Sikhs were murdered, their properties looted, women raped, innocents children and Sikhs dragged out of their houses and killed. Sikh’s shops / houses were looted and then burnt. Conservative estimates tell that over 3,000 (some quote as high as 5000+) Sikhs were killed in just three days.

The worst episode took place on June 6, 1984. What an irony that Manmohan Sing (himself a Sikh) failed to provide justice and has never tried to even console the sufferings his community underwent in those days. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose name means “one who is a loved from the core of one’s heart” should know there are many like Mrs. Balwant Singh who are still waiting for their Manmohans on meals; without knowing that they are no more there, thanks to the mayhem generated by Tytler and Co. but definitely abetted by the Indian Army and security forces.

These poor, innocent families are waiting for the justice from so called secular government which unfortunately herself is found involved in elimination of Sikhs but the enthusiasm, sincerity, and loyalty of Sikh nationalists towards their cause does show that emergence of Kahlistan is sure to come one day, sooner or later on the world map and as  my Sikh brethren say Wah-e-Guru ka Khalsa, Wah-e-Guru ki Fateh….

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too, are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article.

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Posted in Indo-Pak Relations, News, Views & Analysis, Op-Eds, Political Essays & Commentaries, Religion, Sikhism, Terrorism Tagged: 1984 Riots, Balbir Singh Sooch, Brian McAndrew, Brij Mohan Lal, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, Golden Temple, Jaziya, Khalistan, Lt Col Prohit, Maha Bharat, Plight of Religious Minorities in India, RAW, Sikhs of the Orakzai Agency, State Terrorism, Surinder Malik, The Book “Soft target”, The Religious Divide in the Sub continent, Violence against Sikhs, Zaheer-ul-Hassan, Zuhair Kashmeri

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