AMRITSAR SAHIB, Punjab—The pro-freedom Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa has launched a campaign to garner support for its June 6 Amritsar shutdown call to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1984 holocaust.
On June 1 and 2, youth groups associated with the Dal Khalsa distributed posters and leaflets across the city, urging traders and educational bodies to keep their establishments closed.
Activists of ‘Sikh Youth of Punjab’, led by its chief Paramjit Singh, also interacted with people in various markets and localities.
Addressing press conference here today Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh, however, said medical stores would remain open, adding that the shutdown call would be peaceful and road and rail traffic will not be disrupted.
Earlier, in a meeting held under the leadership of Harpal Singh Cheema, it was decided that Dal Khalsa activists will hold Genocide Remembrance March into the streets on June 5 —- the day army entered Darbar Sahib in June 1984.
Party spokesperson while interacting with media at party office said, “Since 1984, there has been change in political leadership with some Sikhs at the helm of affairs both at center and the state. This however has not healed our wounds of June 84.”
He said the aim of march was to reiterate the cause for hundreds of Sikhs who laid down their lives in 1984 while defending the attack adding that no issue of Sikhs had been solved till date. He further said the Indian state founded militarily solution to Punjab problem, which was political in nature. “Till date, the entire approach of the state is anti-Sikh,” he added.
He said representatives of like-minded organizations especially SAD (Amritsar) head Simranjit Singh Mann would also participate in the march.
On the rift between SIT members over the charge-sheet holding Sukhbir-Saini-Sirsa troika responsible for sacrilege incidents, he said the police have become highly politicized force. After doing criminalization of the force, the ruling parties have done its politicization. And for this both Congress and Badal Dal is responsible, said Kanwarpal.
The visible split in the SIT is not on professional lines but on political to give relieve to Badals and to show IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh in a poor light.
Dal Khalsa leader said Badals owe an answer to Punjab and Panth as to why they drop the criminal charges against rapist Sirsa cult chief at the last leg of their regime in 2012.
He pointed out that the lust for power corrupted the minds of Badals, who ditched Panth to hug excommunicated Sirsa cult head Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
