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Radicals march to mark army operation at top Sikh shrine
Sikh radical leaders and their supporters on Wednesday took out a procession through this city to mark 25 years of the start of the Indian Army's Operation Blue Star on the Golden Temple complex.
- IANS
- Published: 23:35 June 3, 2009
Amritsar: Sikh radical leaders and their supporters on Wednesday took out a procession through this city to mark 25 years of the start of the Indian Army's Operation Blue Star on the Golden Temple complex here.
Scores of activists of radical Sikh organisation, Dal Khalsa, carried out the protest march, called the "Genocide Remembrance March" through city streets till the complex of the holiest Sikh shrine, Harmandar Sahib, popularly called Golden Temple or Darbar Sahib.
Upset with the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) for not doing much to set up a memorial for those who lost their lives inside the shrine complex during the army attack in June 1984, the Dal Khalsa said the memorial was needed to commemorate the sacrifices of people.
Going beyond commemorating the memory of the martyrs of the army attack on Darbar Sahib in June 1984, the Dal Khalsa demanded a special law to prevent recurrence of violations of religious sanctity.
"It is important to enact a law to prevent such events from recurring. Stray apologies by the prime minister [Manmohan Singh] or Congress president [Sonia Gandhi] mean nothing," Dal Khalsa president H.S. Dhami told reporters.
He said the Congress's playing the "Sikh card" with Singh as the prime minister would not heal the wounds of the Sikh community either.
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