The radical Sikh party, Dal Khalsa, on Sunday gave a bandh call in Amritsar on June 6 on Operation Bluestar anniversary. The party has announced that to remember thousands of pilgrims and Sikh fighters, who were martyred during the army attack on Darbar Sahib in June 1984, the Dal Khalsa has resolved to undertake a ‘Genocide Remembrance Parade on June 5 and complete shutdown in the city of Amritsar on June 6’.
Reiterating their demand for “impartial international investigation into the killings of thousands of pilgrims”, SGPC employees and volunteers of Dharam Yudh Morcha, the party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said that the pain of the deadly attack is fresh and the wounds of the attack still simmer.
The decision was taken during the meeting of party members convened to chalk out protest programmes to observe Ghallughara week. Giving a call for the Amritsar bandh on the completion of 30 years of army attack codenamed ‘Operation Bluestar’, the Dal Khalsa leader said that the call was meant
“to protest against the destruction of Akal Takht, loot of precious hand written manuscripts and artifacts from Sikh Reference library besides paying rich tributes to martyrs”.
“The march would be organised on June 5 by its youth wing — the Sikh Youth of Punjab. Young activists would start from party office and after covering almost all lanes and streets of the city, the march would culminate at Akal Takht,” he said.
Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s assurance to impress Modi Government to return the invaluable manuscripts and artifacts taken from the Sikh reference library, Dal Khalsa leader said that Akali Dal remained alliance partner in NDA Government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now again it’s part of present dispensation, however, “apart from lip service, it had failed the Sikhs on all fronts”.