Bluestar anniversary: Akal Takht jathedar asks two MP-elects to get Bandi Singhs released
Amritsar bandh on call of radical Sikh outfits; activists raise pro-Khalistan slogans at Golden Temple; Faridkot MP-elect Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, son of former PM Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, present as SAD(A) leader Simranjit Singh Mann and former MP Dhian Singh Mand addressed gathering.
Pro-Khalistan slogans were raised by activists of radical Sikh outfits at the Golden Temple to mark the 40th anniversary of Operation Bluestar in Amritsar on Thursday.
The slogans were raised by activists of the Simranjit Singh Mann-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and former MP Dhian Singh Mand at the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs. Besides Mann, who lost the Lok Sabha election from Sangrur, Faridkot MP-elect Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, who is the son of former PM Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, was present.
Radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa activists were seen carrying Khalistani flags, photos of a damaged Akal Takht after the 1984 military operation, placards with portraits of slain militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in Canada last year.
Elaborate security arrangements were in place in Amritsar to ensure that the event passed off peacefully.
In his sandesh (message) to the community, Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh said two Independent candidates who had won the Lok Sabha elections from Khadoor Sahib and Faridkot, respectively, should raise their voice in Parliament for the release of ‘Bandhi Singhs (Sikh prisoners who have completed their jail terms)’.
He was referring to radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa. While Amritpal Singh, the chief of the Waris Punjab De outfit who is lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, won the Khadoor Singh Lok Sabha seat, Khalsa won the Faridkot seat.
Giani Raghbir Singh asked Sikh youngsters to stay away from drugs and follow the Gurus’ principles. He asked preachers and scholars to visit villages to promote Sikhism and apprise youngsters of Sikh tenets to unite them under the banner of the Akal Takht.
The jathedar termed Bhindranwale and his supporters, who were killed during Operation Bluestar in 1984, “martyrs” and honoured their families.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex Sikh religious body, displayed the ‘saroop (volume)’ of Guru Granth Sahib that was installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple and was hit by a bullet during the operation carried out by the army in June 1984 to flush out militants from the shrine.
A bandh was observed in Amritsar on the call given by radical Sikh outfits. Shops and malls besides offices of private companies remained closed in the city and roads wore a deserted look. Transport services were also hit.