E-Paper
After 36 years, SGPC reprints book on 1984 anti-Sikh violence
As these volumes were never printed again, only one copy of the book was available with the Sikh Reference Library that functions on the premises of the Golden Temple. All volumes have been clubbed in the latest edition
Amritsar The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has reprinted a book on 1984 anti-Sikh violence that rocked the country. Authored by journalist late Surjit Singh Sokhi, the SGPC had first published the Punjabi book titled ‘Sikhan Da Qataleam’ (Massacre of Sikhs) in June 1985 in four volumes.
As these volumes were never printed again, only one copy of the book was available with the Sikh Reference Library that functions on the premises of the Golden Temple. All volumes have been clubbed in the latest edition.
Releasing the book along with senior vice-president Surjit Singh Bhitewad; honourary chief secretary Harjinder Singh Dhami; members Bhai Ram Singh; Bhai Manjit Singh and incharge (literature) Gurmeet Singh, SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur said, “The year 1984 gave unforgettable wounds to the Sikhs.”
“After the Indian Army’s attack on the Sri Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple) and the Akal Takht in June 1984, massacre of Sikhs was carried out in November 1984 across the country, including Delhi, which the community can never forget. This is the brutality that has proved to be a permanent disgrace for the then Congress government,” she said.
“Sokhi has done a remarkable and historic job of recording, in this book, information gathered from eyewitnesses of the November 1984 Sikh genocide,” she added.
The SGPC president added that the Dharam Prachar Committee has made an effort to make people, across the world, aware of the particulars of this shameful ‘genocide’ against the Sikhs by compiling the book’s four parts. “This book will keep alive the atrocities perpetrated on the Sikh community by the then Congress government,” she added.
Bhitewad and Dhami said, “It is a historic resource for future generations, which will continue to educate the youth on the atrocities perpetrated on the Sikhs.” The SGPC is also reprinting the ‘White Paper’ it issued on the Operation Bluestar.
