Ray

Confed,

THis man requires to handling. You should see the tommy rot he has written in the Akal Takht thread in teh Asia security sub section.

Without any proof to support he has written that the Supreme Heads of the Sikh Religion (more powerful that the Pope because they can take disciplinary action and ex communicate) has got given an edict on others of India. This means telling them to go on warpath!

Now this can create a lot of bad blood amongst the Sikhs (who are not milking the whiteman in Europe and the US like this joe) and others in India. Obviously, such a post based on false statement and deception does the fair name of the forum or Rochen any good. In fact, it might give a totally wrong impression of the forum!

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Confed999

The only thing I had a problem with was the name calling.
I'll go check it now.

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Sher-e-Punjab

You are right - Those who fight for their motherlands are real 'Shers' of Punjab.

Here is a sample of their activities in Punjab from earlier this year:

Sher-e-Punjab

And more activity in Punjab including Punjabi support for other freedom movements (Nagalim/Maipur etc)

Ray

Shere,

Laarge sized captions is not adequate.

Post the links.

Ray

Shere,

There are lot of discussions in this forum where there is hot debate.

However, each one posts links to support his views, if they are seriously controversial.

Some questions:

1. In your 'Akal thakt' thread (Asia Security sub section) you have posted:

Uttam Singh (singer)
He has no right to insult the Sikh community in such a way. The Sikh community was born to protect the Hindus. Sikhs are protecting the Hindus and they will continue doing this.

Q1. How come the guys is talking about The Sikh community was born to protect the Hindus. Sikhs are protecting the Hindus and they will continue doing this. Haven't understood this. You seem to be on a warpath and this bloke talks about historically born to protect Hindus and will continue to do so. (Note this is YOUR post). A bit of a contradiction, what?

Q2. Khalistan movement was started for self serving purposes of Bhindranwale and his cohorts.
(a) How come there is no Khalistani movement in India anymore? What is the reason?
(b) How come it is not even elsewhere in the World like the UK and US where they made inroads soaping up the liberal white sentiment?
(c) In Plaestine there is a movement. They are being bashed up daily. They are still going ahead. How come the Khalistanis who claim they are Shere Punjab (Tigers of Punjab) are nowhere on the scene where it matters i.e. India and Punjab?
It maybe noted that the valour of the Sikhs is second to none. World War I and II bear witness. The Wars after Independence in India bear witness of the calour of the Sikh soldiers. Therefore, isn't it surprising that while others who are not so brave as the Sikh (as they claim) pursue 'liberation' movements, the Shere e Punjabs are nowhere to pursue the Khalistan movement? Rather astoundingly contradictory.

If you notice, whatever websites that are on Kahlistan are basically run by the Papa or Bhapa) Khalsas i.e. the business caste of Sikhs. They are known for Skullduggery (remember my post on Puri, a Bhapa Khalsa (Sikh) who fooled the Americans with religion and made converts when his main aim was business?). Ask any Jat Khalsa i.e. the solid landed lot. They despise you Bhapas. I am sure you a Bhapa Khalsa from Ludhiana (Jo Sonio Sikhni te Jhala de Sikh runs the Jat ditty).

Therefore, it is not surprising that you run a few websites and have made it a great business to milk the white softies in believing you as the tormented lot. The whites are real sucker for all this sob stuff and how deprived the darkies are and they hve this guilt complex, which they needn't have! If they made idiots of the darkies and conquered their lands, then the darkies deserve it for the darkies not having the brains to stop them. It is like laying a table of yummy goodies for a child (tiny tots) birthday party and then expecting the children to take it easy!

Do check how many Khalsas have gone to foreign lands. Many. Very enterprising and I won't disagree. But do also look as to how many went there through fake marraiges, illegally sneaking in in container truck like sheep and what have you. I don't grudge that too. Courage favours the brave!

Wah Guru the Genuine Khalsa, Wah Guru de Fateh!

That Courage seems to be missing for those Bhapas who in the safety of foreign lands run website as their weapon of war and chase the will o' the wisp. But then Sardar, you won't know what is will o' the wisp. Ki keriyan, pahi (bhai)?

lemontree

Confed

I shall have avoid name calling. Point taken.

Shere,

WHAT OPPRESSION OF THE SIKHS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
PLEASE JUSTIFY THE BOMBING OF THE AIR INDIA 'KANISHKA' IN 1983, 329 souls died on that flight. (This happened before 1984).

The riots of 1984 had a few reasons: -
- The arrogance of the people to be blind about the terrorists turing the Golden Temple into a den of vipers (terrorist hideout), but blamed the Indian army for cleaning up the mess.
- For the assasination of the former Chief of Army Staff Gen A K Vaidya.
- For not voicing the protest againts the terrorist acts.
- Assaination of Indira Gandhi, was the icing on the cake that hurt the people most.
- What is surprising is that you are puppets at the hands of the Pakistani ISI, the muslims against whose oppression the Khalsa pant was created by the good Guru Govind Singhji. When the Khalsa pant was created to protect the hindus then how can the pant be separate from the Indian state.

__________________

Cheers!...on the rocks!!

Samudra

Ray

Sir , he is posting from http://www.dalkhalsa.com
Obviously , another propaganda site.....

There was some site using which one could find out the location of server,webmasters name etc....any idea what the url is ?
google didnt really help
When did these people provide links ? I have to go , antagonisingly find out the source ( in the case of visions 70000 years chronology of pakistan ) , only to find out it was hosted on geocities and was a 101 Mullah guide to paradise.....it was foolish of him to post such stuff.
shere is no different.

Sher-e-Punjab

11 October 2004

HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER AND ACTIVIST THREATENED, ABUSED AND DEFAMED BY INDIAN GOVERNMENT MINISTER ON NATIONAL TV



To The International Community,

Harvinder Singh Phoolka, 49, a prominent human rights activist and advocate of the Supreme Court of India, who has fought tirelessly to seek justice for victims of the November 1984 Carnage, received threats to his life and was publicly abused and defamed on national Indian television by Jagdish Tytler, an Indian Government minister, against whom a prima facie has been alleged for leading and inciting a mob during the Carnage in Delhi.

Mr Singh has filed a criminal complaint for defamation under Sections 499/500 of the Indian Penal Code in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ludhiana, Panjab.

VFF is shocked that Mr Tytler, the Indian Union Minister for Non Resident Indians, continues to be in office after he threatened, abused and defamed Mr Singh on ‘live’ national television on 7 September 2004. Mr Tytler’s behaviour fell well below the standards of a person in public office.

Mr Tytler called Mr Singh a “liar”, a “blackmailer”, who was “acting dishonestly” and “who has rendered the so-called help to the victims for money”. Mr Tytler went on to threaten, scare and silence Mr Singh by saying: “You would not have been alive” “You are gone”. After the TV cameras were switched off, Mr Tytler continued intimidating the complainant and said, “Now I will finish you”.

Voices For Freedom (VFF) is deeply concerned for the safety and well being of Mr Singh, who in his complaint says that Mr Tytler “clearly conveyed his intention to liquidate the complainant (Mr Singh) and by doing so he has tried to instill fear and sense of insecurity in the mind of the complainant.”

VFF is concerned that this public threat was not just an act of bravado and calls on the global community to take a serious view of it. Mr R. S. Narula, former Chief Justice, Panjab and Haryana High Court, has written to the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, expressing concern about Mr Tytler’s conduct. “The behaviour of Union Minister Sh. Jagdish Tytler, shouting, screaming and threatening openly on a National Channel is unbecoming of a Union Minister. I request you to kindly intervene and take appropriate action,” he said.

Mr Singh has been instrumental in collecting eyewitness evidence and acting as leading counsel for the victims of the Carnage before two Commissions of Enquiry - the Misra Commission and the Nanavati Commission.

Mr. Singh was a moving force behind each and every legal battle on this issue. He has conscientiously followed the cases for the last 20 years and was instrumental in the appointment of the Nanawati commission.

On the basis of the evidence placed before the Nanavati Commission and the arguments addressed by Mr Singh, the Nanavati Commission had issued notices under Section 8B of the Commission of Enquiry Act, 1952 to at least a dozen prominent persons and senior members of the police force. One such prominent person was Mr Tytler, who was the then a Member of Parliament and member of the Congress party in Delhi. The Notice to ‘ show cause’ was issued because the Commission found that there was a prima facie case against Mr Tytler based on the eyewitness report of Mr Surinder Singh, a head granthi (priest) of a Sikh Gurdwara a (place of worship) who said in his affidavit that during the November 1984 Carnage, he saw Mr Tytler incite and lead a mob of rioters to burn the Gurdwara and kill Sikhs. He said that on being incited by the Mr Tytler the mob attacked and burnt the Gurdwara, killing Sikhs.

The Nanavati Commission is expected to publish its findings by December 2004.

In November 1984 a anti-Sikh carnage took place in Delhi and other parts of India, after the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31st October 1984. 2733 (Government figure) innocent Sikhs were slaughtered in Delhi in just 72 hours (say one murder every one and a half minute). It was a genocide or near genocide of the Sikhs in the capital city of India. In terms of the span of time and the territory wherein such a huge number of Sikhs were killed, it far exceeds and dims the memory of horrifying incidents of partition of India in the year 1947. It belies common sense and shatters the faith of any law-abiding citizen in the criminal justice system of the country that the guilty of such heinous crimes were roaming scot-free without any fear of law or law enforcement agencies in the same areas, where they indulged in these nefarious acts. In these circumstances, Mr Singh felt duty-bound to advance and espouse the cause of the victims at various Fora at any cost or risk whatsoever.

Mr Singh’s involvement began when he was moved by what he saw when he had visited a relief camp, which had been set up for the victims of the November 1984 Carnage at Farsh Bazar, East Delhi. He, to his utter dismay, found that there was hardly any legal assistance being made available to the helpless victims. Mr Singh, on seeing the miserable plight of the victims, then a 29 year-old lawyer, saw it as his moral responsibility to provide free legal aid and assistance to the victims. Accordingly, Mr Singh has been providing them free legal aid and not only conducting their cases in various Courts himself but has also actively followed up and taken keen interest in each and every major legal battle concerning the victims of the said carnage.

WHAT HAPPENED ON TV

Before the relay of the said live telecast, channel NDTV had released an interview with Justice G.T. Nanavati, who heads a Commission of Enquiry of the same name, who had said that there was evidence which also implicated Jagdish Tytler in the November 84 Carnage.

NDTV Channel had invited Mr Singh for a discussion on the general issue as to why in India whenever large-scale riots take place, the guilty are not punished. This issue had assumed importance contemporarily in view of the witnesses turning hostile in the infamous Best Bakery Case relating to the Gujarat riots in the year 2002. Mr Tytler was also invited to participate in the television discussion.

The television presenter initiated the discussion asking why the guilty whether in Delhi or Gujarat were not punished. The presenter asked Mr Tytler why was it common for witnesses to turn hostile. Mr Tytler, instead of proceeding with the discussion, started shouting and levelling imputations against Mr Singh alleging that Mr Singh was a “liar”, a “blackmailer”, who was “acting dishonestly” and who had rendered the so-called help to the victims for money only. A video cassette containing complete video recording of the TV programmes (in Hindi and English) may be viewed at links shown below.

According to the complaint filed by Mr Singh, the defamatory statements made by Mr Tytler against Mr Singh in the television programmes were:-

“People like him (Mr Singh) who make money out of this are accusing this thing. He (Mr Singh) has made money. He (Mr Singh) is blackmailing people. He (Mr Singh) black mailed me.”

“But this man (Mr Singh) who has no credibility.”
“You (Mr Singh) have no credibility, You (Mr Singh) have no credibility, You (Mr Singh) have no credibility. You (Mr Singh)are blackmailer. You are blackmailer. He (Mr Singh) has blackmailed the people. He (Mr Singh) blackmailed widows – widows blackmailer. Aray chal!”

“Aray jao ! You (Mr Singh) are gone. You (Mr Singh) are a liar. You are discredited man. You (Mr Singh) are (sic) eaten money out of the widows. You (Mr Singh) have taken money out of the widows. Yes, yes.”
“I am come here only to – I wanted to expose this man (pointing towards Mr Singh) otherwise I would have never been here.”

ATTACHMENTS
Below you will find documents relevant to this case for your information.
Letter from Justice Narula: A letter sent from Justice Narula to Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh about Mr. Tytler’s threats against Mr. Phoolka:
http://www.voicesforfreedom.org/hrab...ticenarula.htm

”X-Factor” Video
Video coverage of the X-Factor television show, aired on Sept. 7, 2004, with Mr. Tytler and Mr. Phoolka.
MPEG FORMAT: Approx 99.40 Mb http://www.voicesforfreedom.org/hrab...NDTVThreat.mpg
(Warning) Wave File Format size : Approx 1.48 Gb
http://www.voicesforfreedom.org/hrab...video/ndtv.wmv
(File must be downloaded and opened in Windows Media Player)
Complaint Full-Text
The full-text of Mr. H.S. Phoolka’s complaint as filed in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate in Ludhiana, Punjab, on September 27, 2004
http://www.voicesforfreedom.org/hrab...InLudhiana.htm
The incident was reported in Express News Line Service
(Courtesy Express News Line Service)
http://www.voicesforfreedom.org/hrab...ServiceRpt.htm

Jay

****yawn****

lemontree

Shere,

Just check this below, the site link is below:-
http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/india/india1984a.htm

In May 1984, Sikh extremists occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar, converting it into a haven for terrorists. Gandhi responded in early June when she launched Operation Bluestar, which killed and wounded hundreds of soldiers, insurgents, and civilians (see Insurgent Movements and External Subversion, ch. 10). Guarding against further challenges to her power, she removed the chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh just months before her assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984...

The insurgency in the state of Punjab originated in the late 1970s. The roots of this insurgency are complex. The Green Revolution, a package of agricultural inputs, transformed the socioeconomic landscape of Punjab (see The Green Revolution, ch. 7). Amidst this new-found prosperity, large numbers of Sikhs started to shed some of the trappings of their faith. This propensity rekindled an age-old fear in the Sikh community--that of being absorbed into the Hindu fold. In turn, many Punjabi Sikhs, who were dispossessed of their land as a consequence of agricultural transformation, found solace in various revivalistic practices. One of the leaders of this revivalistic movement was Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a politically ambitious itinerant Sikh preacher. The second factor contributing to the insurgency was the attempt by Indira Gandhi (India's prime minister, 1966-77 and 1980-84), the Congress, and from 1978 Congress (I) to use Bhindranwale to undermine the position of the Akali Dal (Eternal Party), a regional party (see Political Parties, ch. 8). Bhindranwale and his followers were encouraged to verbally intimidate Akali Dal politicians. Although this strategy met with some success, Bhindranwale and his followers became a source of mayhem and disruption in Punjab. Eventually, in June 1984, Gandhi had to order units of the Indian army to flush out Bhindranwale and his followers, who had taken refuge in the Golden Temple complex, Sikhism's most holy shrine, in Amritsar, Punjab (see Sikhism, ch. 3).

This exercise, Operation Bluestar, was, at best, a mixed success. After all efforts at negotiation failed, Indira Gandhi ordered the army to storm the temple. A variety of army units, along with substantial numbers of paramilitary forces, surrounded the temple complex on June 3, 1984. After the demands to surrender peacefully were met with volleys of gunfire from within the confines of the temple, the army was given the order to take the temple by force. Indian intelligence authorities had underestimated the firepower possessed by the militants, however, and the army brought in tanks and heavy artillery to suppress the antitank and machine-gun fire. After a twenty-four-hour firefight, the army successfully took control of the temple. According to Indian government sources, eighty-three army personnel were killed and 249 injured. Insurgent casualties were 493 killed and eighty-six injured. Indian observers assert that the number of Sikh casualties was probably higher.

The attack on the Golden Temple had the effect of inflaming significant segments of the Sikh community.


So much for you demand for "justice".

lemontree

Shere
Some more examples of your "freedom fighters" brothers in the Kashmir valley exploits.
http://www.fas.org/irp/news/1993/terrorism_press.html

Below I qoute just an extract, read the above link for details.

India, as attested by the CIA, successive Administrations, and
senior State Department officials, is facing an expensive and in-
direct conflict with Pakistan. Pakistan, by training and sup-
porting insurgents in Punjab and Kashmir, has induced instability
in these border regions. As evidenced in Punjab, Kashmiri ter-
rorists are successfully propagating a dis- information campaign
alleging human rights excesses, rapes, and the like. The Press
Council of India, an independent, statutory body of journalists,
judiciary, business men, and other eminent Indians examined these
allegations closely and has released a report titled "Crisis and
Credibility: Lancer Paper IV." According to the report, although
there were human rights excesses, a majority of the allegations
were militant propaganda. In instances where the security per-
sonnel were found guilty, they were immediately punished. In a
recent edition of a reputed video magazine, "Newstrack," several
women acknowledged having falsely accused the security personnel
at the insistence of terrorists. Many of these women, after hav-
ing been repeatedly raped by the terrorists, have now joined the
Border Security Force (BSF) and are now urging others to take re-
fuge with the BSF. As evidenced in that report, the popular sen-
timent is now against the insurgency it once favored

You did the same and failed in Punjab.

Sher-e-Punjab

'OPERATION BLUESTAR': The untold story



Investigation Team : Amiya Rao, Aurbindo Ghose, Sunil Bhattacharya, Tejinder Ahuja and N.D.Pancholi

---------------
"Operation Bluestar" and "Ghallughara". Two different terms for the same episode - the Army action on the Golden Temple in June 1984. Two different meanings give to the same unprecedented event. "Operation Bluestar" in the Government's term, connoting a necessary military operation to flush out terrorists and recover arms from the Golden Temple, the implication being that it was an unavoidable cleansing act of purification. Where as "Ghallughara" is how the Sikhs of Punjab remember the episode, connoting aggression, massacre and religious persecution. The unmistakable allusion is to the killing in Punjab of tens of thousands of Sikhs by the Afgan raider, Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1762, after which the word "Ghallughara" was coined to become an integral part of the Punjabi folklore.

The contrast between "Operation Bluestar" and "Ghallughara" as two different perceptions of the same reality is symptomatic of the wide gap between the official version and the people's recollections of what really happened at the Golden Temple when the army attacked it in June 1984. Listening to the gripping eye-witness accounts of those who were inside Golden Temple at that time, we felt the need to tell the truth, the as-yet untold story and in the process to correct the Government's version as put out by the Army, the Press, the Radio, the T.V. and the White Paper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE ARMY ACTION
Who were the eye-witnesses to the Golden Temple episode?


1. Devinder Singh Duggal - In charge of the Sikh Reference Library located inside the Golden Temple complex. Duggal is an acknowledged authority on Sikh history. He used to reside in a house adjacent to the Sikh Reference Library, was present there between May 28 and June 6, 1984 and hence (in his own words) "an eye-witness to some of the atrociities committed by the Army during its attack on the Golden Temple". About fiftyish, Duggal now lives with his lecturer-wife in Jallandhar, where we interviewd him. His eyes become moist and his voice quivered as he described the assault on the Golden Temple.
2. Bhan Singh- Secretary of the S.G.P.C., short, slim, in his mid fifties, Bhan Singh is a man of few words. He was present in the Golden Temple Complex during the Army attack and was arrested at dawn on June 6 along with Longowal and Tohra from the Guru Nanak Nivas which now houses the SGPC Office, where we met and talked to him. His account begins from June 3, 1984.

3. Giani Puran Singh - one of the priests at Harmandir Sahib.

4. Girl Student - Grand-daughter of SGPC member, she preferred to remain anonymous. Aged about 20 years, she goes to college at Amritsar. She went to the Golden Temple on May 29, 1984, with her grand-parents and an aunt, to fulfill a vow, and was there until June 6. We met her in Amritsar in the house of a widowed victim of the November 1984 Delhi violence.

5. A.I.S.S.F. Member - about 25-years old, he would not give his name, son of a police officer, he was visiting the Golden Temple in June 1984 for the Gurupurab and was there from June 1. He was arrested by the Army on June 6 but released in October. He was rearrested soon after and had been again released a little before we met him. Remarkably calm and soft spoken, he said that there were about 100 fighters with Bhindranwale inside the Temple Complex and less than 100 arms, mostly, 303 guns of the II World War. Extremely handsome, he is a member of the All India Sikh Students Federation.

6. Prithipal Singh - A young (24 years) Sevadar at the Akal Rest House, inside the Guru Ram Das Serai, Golden Temple complex, where mostly distinguished guests stayed. He was on duty throughout the period of the Army Operation. He narrated how he had a hair-breadth escape, even after being lined up before the firing squad on June 6, after he had been arrested, stripped naked and his hands had been tied behind his back with his turban. He showed us the bullet-ridden walls of the Akal Rest House, where we spoke to him.

7. Joginder Singh - and empoyee of the S.G.P.C. whom we met at the Golden Temple.

8. Surinder Singh Ragi "Patnasahib Wala" - Head Ragi (singer) at the Harmandir Sahib, we met the young man (about 35 years) outside the Information Office of the Golden Temple, He was in the Kesari (Sochre) roles of a priest. He was on duty at the Harmandir Sahib during the Army action. He is an extremely popular singer of 'Shabads' from the Gurbani and his tapes are on great demand. He spoke to us with great conviction. "The Guru taught us to resist atyachar (represssion), not to do atyachar".

9. Baldev Kaur - an Amritdhari woman in her mid-thirties, she had come to the Golden Temple on June 2, 1984 for the Gurupurab with her husband (Puran Singh who is now in Kapurthala Jail) and three children from her village Khanowal in Kapurthala district. She was so calm and fearless when she described her tribulations. She is facing severe economic hardships, cultivating only two acres of land, having no regualr source of income since her husband's arrest more that 9 months back.

10. Harchan Singh Ragi - one of the Hazuri Ragis who sings at the Harmandir Sahib, he is in his late fifties. With serene eyes and flowing white beard, he has an endearing touch. He was on duty at the Harmandir Sahib singing 'kirtans' when the Army shelled it very early morning on June 4. Born into a Hindu Brahmin family, he was orphaned at the time of partition and then adoped and brought up by Amrik Singh, the blind Head Ragi of the Golden Temple who was killed inside the Harmandir Sahib on the morning of June 5. We met him at the Information Office of the Golden Temple, and he lives just above it. Raminderpal Singh - an innocent boy - one of his sons, is detained at Jodhpur Jail as a 'terrorist'.

Some of the details of the life in Amritsar at the time of the Army action, were provided to us by the relatives of a few of those who were captured from the Golden Temple after the army operation, as 'terrorists' accused of 'waging war against the State' and who are now being tried under the Special Courts (Terrorists) Act at Jodhpur Jail. It is the Jodhpur detenues who are eye-witnesses to the Army operations in Amritsar in June 1984, not the relatives we met. But some of their evidence was passed on to their relatives in the course of brief meeting in jail from time to time. We met the relatives of:


(a) Kanwaljit Singh - A 20-year-old student of Khalsa College (evening) Delhi, whose father (Satnam Singh) runs a provision store at Lawrence Road, Delhi. Kanwaljit Singh visted the Temple with his friend on June 2, wanted to return to Delhi the same afernoon, but found that the last train had left Amritsar. And so he was forced to stay at the Guru Ram Das Serai inside the Golden Temple Complex. After Army action, he was arrested by the Army from the Serai and later chargesheeted with 378 others as 'terrorists' and detained under the N.S.A. We spoke to his youger brother, Inder Mohan Singh, at Delhi.
(b) Jasbir Singh and Randhir Singh - Two brothers who went to Golden Temple, separtely, on June 3 to pay their respects. As Jasbir Singh was coming out after fulfilling his vow on June 3 at about 1:30 p.m. on the side of the Chowk Ghan ta Ghar, he was detained along with other youths by the C.R.P. The C.R.P. made them take off their shirts, tied their hands behind them and made them sit on the hot road outside the Information Office. Randhir Singh was staying in a room in Guru Ram Das Serai, belonging to their uncle (a member of the SGPC) from where he was arrested on June 5. Randhir was injured by bullets on his leg. We spoke to their father, Harbans Singh Ghumman, about 55 years a farmer and former MLA belonging to village Ghummankala , district Gurdaspur.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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June 1, 1984 - Pieceing together the evidence of various eye-witness and also second-hand socurces, such as Kirpal Singh, President of the Khalsa Dewan, Amritsar and S.S. Bhagowalia, advocate at Gurdaspur and Vice-president for the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (Punjab), the following picture emerges as to what happened at Golden Temple from June 1, 1984. It is really amazing how, except for some minor details, the accounts of different persons interviewed separately tally so closely with regard to the date, the time and the description of incident June 1, 1984. The AISSF Member, Duggal, the girl student, Sevadar Prithipal Singh and Baldev Kaur all said the the Golden Temple was fired at by security forces from the outside for the first time on June 1 itself, not June 5 as claimed by the White Paper. According to the AISSF member, "At 14.40 in the afternoon of June 1, suddenly the CRP without provocation started firing, aiming at the people inside the Parikarmas. There was no firing, from inside the Golden Temple. The firing by the C.R.P. was on the Harmandir Sahib and the Manjih Sahib. The firing continued till about 8 p.m." Sevadar Prithipal Singh added that the shooting which started from outside, was not preceded by any warning.

Devinder Singh Duggal's account is extremely detailed and lucid. "By the end of May, it was widely known that the Army is going to attack the Golden Temple, and on that account there was tremendous tension in the entire city and its surrounding ar eas. The worst fears of the people came to the surface when on 1st June, the security forces which had beseiged the Golden Temple for months together and had made strong fortification on the multi-storey buildings all around it, suddenly started firing in side the Golden Temple. The firing sarted at 12.30 p.m. and continued for a full 7 hours. What was worse was that Harmandir Sahib was made the main target of this firing. I took shelter along with my staff behind the steel almirahs of the Library, one of the bullets pierced through three almirahs and landed on the fourth and we had a narrow escape."

Duggal continues - "Not a single shot was fired from inside the complex. When I asked some of the boys as to why they did not answere the firing, they replied that they were under strict orders of the Sant not to fire a single shot unless and unti ll the security forces or the Army entered the holy Golden Temple. In the evening, when I heard in the news bulletin that there was unprovoked firing from inside the Temple, but that the security forces showed extreme restrain and did not fire a single sh ot, I was surprised at this naked lie. The very fact that as many as eight persons, includeing a woman and a child had been killed inside the Golden Temple complex and there were as many as 34 big bullet wounds on all sides of the Harmandir Sahib complete ly belied the Government's version. I asked Bhan Singh, Secretary, S.G.P.C., to do something to refute this falsehood. He said that nothing could be done because all links with the outside world had been snapped."

According to the girl student, curfew was clamped soon after the firing started. She confirmed the killings - "Authorities had said none had died, but I dressed the wounds of 3 men who died later in front me in Guru Nanak Nivas." That the cur few was lifted soon after the firing stopped is indicated by the AISSF member, who said, "after the firing stopped, at about 8.30 p.m., a group of people (Jatha) courted arrest."

There is no doubt then that security forces (C.R.P.) fired on the Harmander Sahib on June 1 itself and the news over the A.I.R. that there was unprovoked firing from inside was a blatant lie. However, most official versions maintain a meaningful silenc e about the happenings of June 1. For them, as for example, with the Government's White Paper, the story begins on June 2 with the Government of India deciding to call in the Army in aid of civil authority in Punjab, with the object of "checking and controlling extermist, terrorist and communal vioulence in Punjab, providing security to the people and restore normalcy." How much security the Army succeeded in providing to the people and how much normalcy, they were able to restore, is however, a nother matter.

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June 2, 1984 - Duggal was relieved when "fortunately, on 2nd June a team of five reporters including Mark Tully of B.B.C. came there (Golden Temple) and were told the truth . They were taken around the Golden Temple and shown 34 big wounds caused by the bullets on all sides of the Harmandir Sahib, some of them as big as almost 3" in diameter."

"The 2nd June passed off peacefully," according to Duggal, because there was no firing and no curfew, while Baldev Kaur said it was 'quiet'. A large number of Sikhs came to the Golden Temple from the surrounding areas along with their familie s as the next day, June 3, was Guru Parb or the martyrdom day of Shri Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth holy Guru of the Sikhs.

The peace and quiet was only on the surface, because active preparations were afoot to break the peace. Kanwaljit Singh and his friend Manjit Singh from Delhi visited Golden Temple on the morning of June 2 and found that there there was no restriction for pilgrims to enter Amritsar or even the Temple. But the exit doors out ot Amritsar were being closed. After visiting the Temple, when Kanwaljit went at noon to the Amritsar Railway Station to catch a train for Delhi, they were told that the last train had already left and that the Flying Mail in the evening would not be leaving. In fact they were told all outgoing trains had been cancelled. So Kanwaljit and Manjit were forced to return to the Golden Temple and put up in the Guru Ram Das Serai for the n ight. Thus was Kanwaljit to miss his interveiw at Delhi with the Institute of Bank Management on June 3 morning and his examination with the State Bank of India the same afternoon.

The AISSF young man said that the C.R.P., outside the Golden Temple was replaced by Army on the night of June 2. Although there was no formal curfew, and all visitors entering the Temple were allowed to come in without any ado, all those who left the G olden Temple on the night of June 2 were being taken into custody. "I did not therefore leave the Golden Temple complex", said the A.I.S.S.F. member revealing his caution

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June 3, 1984 - According to the AISSF member, "Guru Parb was on June 3. About 10,000 people had come from outside including many women and 4000 of them were young people. Those who were inside were not allowd to go out after 10 p.m. on June 3. The Jathas which had come mainly from Sangrur were not allowed to court arrest."

Bhan Singh confirms: "June 3 being Guru Parb, thousands of pilgrims had come. But suddenly there was a curfew, so the pilgrims and the 1300 Akali workers came to participate in the Dharam Yudh Morcha and to court arrest, could not leave. The Akali Jathas consisted of about 200 ladies, 18 children and about 1100 men and all of them along with the thousands of pilgrims were forced to stay back inside the Temple complex. Most were living in Guru Ram Das Serai, some at Teja Singh Samundri Hall."

The girl student remembers, "On June 3, at 6 o'clock in the evening we came to know that Punjab had been sealed for 48 hours and that even cycles would not be allowed on the streets."

Kanwaljit Singh sent a telegram home to Delhi at 8.05 p.m. on June 3 from the Golden Temple Post Office "Coming after curfew". It means that the curfew was 'reimposed' (Duggal's word) between 8.05 p.m. and 10 p.m.

No one inside the Golden Temple had yet realised the sinister plan of the authoritites. Punjab had been sealed. Thousands of pilgrims and hundreds of Akali workers had been allowed to collect inside the Temple complex. They had been given no inkling or warning either of the sudden curfew or of the imminent Army attack. It was to be a Black Hole-type of tragedy, not out of forgetfulness but out of deliberate planning and design.

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June 4, 1984 - Duggal's recollection are vived, almost photographic. "At abut 4 a.m. in the early hours of the morning of June 4, the regular Army attack on the temple started with a 25-pounder which fell in the ramparts of the Deori to the left o f Akal Takht Sahib with such a thunder that for a few moments I thought that the whole complex had collapsed. I along with my wife were then sitting in the verandah of my house adjacent to the Sikh Reference Library. Recovering from the initial shock, we moved into the room and took shelter in one of its corners. Therafter, every second the ferocity of firing increased and it continued unabated till the evening of the 6th June.

As we were on the first floor, and our quarter was open on all sides our position was very vulnerable. The bullets hit our quarters on all sides and some of them pierced through the doors and landed inside the room. To add to our miseries the power and water supplies had been cut. Through a slit in the shutter of a window we saw a large number of dead bodies in the Parikrama of the Golden Temple. They included women and children. We could not leave our room. Coming out in the open would have exposed us to sure death."

Baldev Kaur's account of how the Army attack began is similar - "Very early on June 4, while it was dark, there was cannon fire from outside the Golden Temple without any warning. Shots were fired from all sides."

Bhan Singh is emphatic that no warning was given, no public announcement was made by the Army before the shelling of the Golden Temple started on June 4 - "had the army given a warning at least those pilgrims who had come for the Guru Parb could g o out and then those person who were simply here to participate in the Dharam Yudh Morcha could go out. But no warning was given to the people. The firing was started from all around the complex with vengeance, as if they were attacking on alien, enemy co untry."

According to the girl student the shelling started at about 20 minutes past 4 o'clock on June 4 dawn and continued without interruption upto 2 o'clock in the afternoon of that day (June 4), and evening of June 5.

Her account is extemely graphic - On June 4 at about 3:30 a.m. we were inside the Harmandir Sahib reciting our prayers. Suddenly, thew was a black-out in the whole of the Goldne Temple complex. The devotees continued to be immersed in worship. A about 20 minutes past 4 o'clock there was a very loud explosion. We felt that the whole of the Golden Temple complex was shaking. I was alone on the balcony overlooking the lake or sarovar. Suddenly something roundish fell in front of me. I was curious. So I ge ntly touched it and pushed it into the water. As it fell, there was a big noise and then the water rose and splashed into the Harmandir Sahib. I started reeling, once tilting on one side and again on the other. Someone pulled me inside. The explosions con tinued. We then realised that the Army's attack on the Golden Temple had begun." In a flash she described her companions - "Inside the Harmandir Sahib there were about 50 to 60 persons - soem granthis (priests), ragis (singers), sevadars (employ ees), the rest of them yatris (pilgrims or visitors) like me and my family. I did not see any armed terrorist."

The Army fired from all sides and did not spare any target in the Temple complex which seemed to shelter people. According to Prithipal Singh, the Sevadar on duty at Akal Rest House, deep inside the Guru Ram Das Serai, the Akal Rest House was shelled f rom the side of Gali Bagh Wali (to the left of the main entrance from the side on chowk Ghanta Ghar) at 5 a.m. on June 4. The bullet marks on the walls, the doors and windows of the side rooms of the Akal Rest House bore silent testimony to the Sevadars s tory, as we listened to him in May, 1985, almost one year after the shooting.

The Harmandir Sahib was not spared by the Army on June 4, just as it had not been by the C.R.P. on June 1. According to the girl student, bulletts hissed past her and her grandmother and aunt when they crawled across the bridge on their stomachs in the ir bid to escape from Harmandir Sahib. She managed to pick up a portion of a shell which had exploded on the bridge near Harmandir Shaib - it was marked 84 mm., and it had two colours, yellow on the upper part and blue on the lower part.

Baldev Kaur's account suggests that there was no immediate counter-fire from inside the Golden Temple complex. The A.I.S.S.F. member said that "there was some stray firing from inside the Golden Temple before the Army's entry into the complex" ;. The girl student provides a comparative picture of the magnitude and intensity of firing from outside the Temple and from inside. "The firing that took place from inside the Golden Temple was negligible. On June 1, there was absolutely no firing f rom inside. Wheras on June 4, the ratio what something like this - if a thousand rounds were being fired by the Army from outside, then about one or one and a half rounds were fired in reply by the armed militants from inside the Temple complex."

Meanwhile, according to Duggal, "the helicopter hovered above and continued to fire from above. Some of these helicopters also guided the firing squads of the Army by making circle of light around the targets. Immediately after these circles, the cannon bell would land on the target causing havoc. We saw a large number of boys blown to pieces."

According to Bhan Singh, "they (the Army) treated the inmates of the Complex as enemies and whenever there was any person wounded on account of the firing, no Red Cross people were allowed to enter, rather the Red Cross personnel had been detained beyond the Jallianwallah Bagh," - more that a kilometre away from the main entrance to the Golden Temple from the Chowk Ghanta Ghar side. In accordance with the U.N. Charter of Human Rights, the Red Cross is permitted to go in aid of the wounded rig ht inside the enemy territory, but in Amritsar in June 1984 the Red Cross was not allowed to enter the Golden Temple - a respected and hallowed part of our country- in aid of Indians under attack from the Indian army. It only means that the attack was so brutal and the battle scene so grisly, that there was much to hide from the public scrutiny, even if it be that of a neutral agency called the Red Cross. This also explains perhaps why Press Censorship had already been imposed, the last of the journalists were hounded away and the Press was not allowed inside the Golden Temple upto June 10 when they were taken on a guided tour of the Complex for the first time since the Army Operations began almost a week before.

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June 5, 1984 - The firing and counter-firing continued. Harcharan Singh Ragi saw his guardian and mentor - the old completely blind Head Ragi of the Golden Temple, Amrik Singh being shot by a bullet and dying inside the Harmandir Sahib at about 6.30 a.m . on June 5.

This was the respect shown by the Indian Army to the Harmandir Sahib! The White Paper issued on July 10, 1984 adopts a holier-than-thou attitude - "Specific Orders were given to troops to use minimum force, to show the utmost reverence to all holy places and to ensure that no desecration or damage was done to the Harmandir Sahib..." (Para 10) and once more "In spite of this (machine-gun fire from Harmandir Sahib on the night of June 5) the troops exercised great restrain and refrained fr om directing any fire at Harmandir Sahib." All this is propaganda. We have recorded the truth - the Harmandir Sahib was fired at by the C.R.P. on June 1 and there wer 34 bullet marks on it which were shown to Mark Tully of the B.B.C. the next day. Wh en the Army attacked the Golden Temple at dawn on June 4, the Harmandir Sahib was the target of destructive shelling and on June 5 two Ragis - one Amrik Singh, blind, 65-year-old - a singer of devotional songs and another Avtar Singh were killed by bullet s right inside the Harmandir Sahib. Perhaps the White Paper was doing an exercise in sarcasm and irony when it stated: "the troops exercised great restraint and refrained from directing any fire at Harmandir Sahib."

Meanwhile, the girl student and her companions had managed to come away from the Harmandir Sahib, crawling on their stomaches across the small bridge. They were bundled into a room on the ground floor of the Akal Takht. They kept sitting there, having nothing to eat and no water to drink. To continue, in her own words, "Helicopters were encircling the Temple from above. After the helicopters completed their circle, at about 11:30 a.m. on June 5, the huge water tank inside the Temple complex was fi red at. The tank could not be broken even after the initial 10 shells hit the tank. Then one bomb hit the tank after which it burst and all the water gushed out. The fighters who had taken their positons beneath the tank were killed.

"They continued the firing till the evening of June 5 and then it was about 8.30 p.m. It was completly dark when they entered accompanied by very heavy firing. The blasting was so severe that I thought that I had reached some other world.

"We were 40-50 persons huddled together in the room, including women and children, even a child of six months. In the next room were the pilgrims who had come on June 3 to celebrate Guru Parb but they had been trapped."

"The upper protion of the Akal Takht had been fired at by the Army and completely destroyed. Pieces of the Guru Granth Sahib were flying in the air and littering the ground. The place seemed to have been transformed into a haunted house.

"Then the tank entered. It had powerful searchlights. I thought the ambulance had come to attend to the dead and injured. But it had turned out the opposite. The tanks went riding past us. From the tanks the announcement came, loud and clear: &quo t;Please come out, God's blessings are with you. We will reach you home absolutely safe and sound," There were some among us who were frantic for some water, they came out in the open. In the morning I saw the dead bodies lying on the Parikrama. This was the worst kind of treachery."

The A.I.S.S.F. Members narration of the events of June 5 has a somewhat different emphasis - less personal reflection and more of detached observation. On June 5th at about 8 p.m. the Army entered the Complex through the Ghanta Ghar side under heavy co ver fire. The road was blocked. Nobody was allowed to come out of the Complex. The Army entry was not preceded by any warning of announcement asking the people to surrender. "There was some stray firing from inside the Golden Temple before the Army e ntry into the Complex. But the real resistance began only after the Army entered the Temple. The order from Bhindranwale was to use limited firearms with discretion. There were only about 100 people to fight and there were less that 100 arms consisting mo stly of 303 rifles used in the World War II, 315 guns and a few stenguns. When the army entered, the ammunition was nearly exhausted. "After mid-night, at about 1 a.m. one armoured carrier and 8 tanks came inside the complex. The tanks had powerful s earchlights and they came down the stair-case, and the Army surrounded the langar building." Even 11 months afterwards, we could still see the marks of the tanks on the Parikrama.

Duggal's account is also informative. By the evening of June 5, he and his family had managed to move to the house of the Giani Sahib Singh, the head priest of Golden Temple, which is about 25 yards away from the house he had earlier taken shelter in. In Duggal's words, "The night between the 5th and 6th was terrible. The tanks and armoured carriers had entered the Golden Temple Complex. The firing was such, that its ferocity cannot be described. In the early hours of June 6th, we learnt that the holy Akal Takht had been completely demolished in the firing. As devoted Sikhs, we were extremely shocked. Tears flowed through the eyes of everybody there. All through the night we heard the heart rending cries of the dying persons."

Giani Puran Singh, a priest at the Harmandir Sahib also an eye-witness remembers - "At 7.30 p.m. on 5th I went to Sri Akal Takht where I met Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale with who I had a long satisfying talk while shots were ringing outside. Gyani Mohan Singh, whose duty was to conduct REHRAS (Evening Prayer) had not been able to reach Harmandir Sahib, due to the shooting. I then came down from the Akal Takht and joined some "Singhs" in a morcha and enquired of them whether Gyani Mohan Singh had passed that way. As per the tradition the 'Regras' at Akal Takht starts 5 minutes later than at the Harmandir Sahib, but that day Path at the Akali Takht had already s