Srinagar
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference while expressing solidarity with the Sikh community on the 37th anniversary of the Indian military’s invasion of the Golden Temple in Amritsar said that the attack was the brazen act of state-sponsored violence against the Sikh community and their religious identity.
Terming the 1984 assault on the Sikh holiest shrine in Amritsar as a heinous crime, the APHC spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar said that the Indian army’s Operation Blue Star was an official beginning of a systematic purge of the Sikh community in India.
He maintained that the massacre of thousands of Sikhs during and after the assault on the Golden Temple left deep scars on the psyche of Sikh community members in and outside India.
He said that the Kashmiris share the trauma, pain and agony of Sikhs as they also have been witnessing state-sponsored repression for over seven decades.
Maintaining that the use of military might can never weaken the resolve of oppressed nations to fight for their just rights and freedom, the APHC spokesman said that the Sikhs will never forget the killing of their great leader Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale and thousands of others as well as the desecration of their holiest site.
He said the awakening for freedom and independence from Indian imperialism has only strengthened among the Sikhs with the passage of time, adding separate homeland for the Sikhs in the name of Khalistan is writing on the wall.
The spokesman pointed out the atrocities seen by the Sikh community in 1984 was a reminder that the so-called secular India is not safe for the existence of minorities, adding Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits, Christians and other minorities continue to be harassed, hounded, humiliated and killed across India.
He said that the ill-treatment meted out to the minorities has increased manifold since BJP attained power in India and that the minorities are feeling more marginalized and alienated in Modi’s India and this dangerous situation could lead to balkanization of the country.—KMS
