UTTARAKHAND, India—All India Sikh Conference president Gurcharan Singh Babbar, in a letter to the Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat, has informed him about their plan to reclaim the land on which the historic Gurdwara Gyan Godadi Sahib stood.
In his letter addressed to chief minister Harish Rawat, Gurcharan Singh Babbar has requested the state government to free the Gurdwara land, illegally occupied during the November 1984 genocidal violence against the Sikhs. The letter warned that in case the state administration failed to free the land that belonged to the Gurdwara of illegal occupants, “we will reclaim the Gurdwara, even if it means sacrificing our lives.”
Gurcharan Singh Babbar reported that Sikhs have been agitating for the Gurdwara’s restoration to the community for the last four years. It was particularly dear to them, as it had been built about 450 years ago to commemorate Guru Nanak Sahib’s long stay at Har-ki-Paudi during a visit to Haridwar. Taking advantage of the anti-Sikh sentiments in the aftermath of then prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, “some criminals demolished the Gurdwara, and illegally occupied the place,” Babbar remarked. The site has been turned into a Bharat Scouts and Guides office, he said. While the Sikhs insist that the site be handed back to rebuild Gurdwara, the administration proposed that the Sikhs accept another site for building a Gurdwara. That proposal was not acceptable to the All India Sikh Conference (AISC), Babar said.
