WAKE UP!!!

Seek Blood For Blood: Reflections on Indian state terrorism in the Punjab
Manjot Bains (http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2002-1/issue12/fe-punjab.html)

Imagine a building, plated in gold, sitting in the centre of a water reservoir. Surrounding the reservoir is a complex made of white marble, with beautiful buildings lining the sides. Now picture a serene tree, hundreds of years old, sitting at the edge of the resevoir, providing shade for pilgrims who sit under it.

The sounds of Indian hand drums - the tabla - float through the air along with a stringed sitar. Voices pass by, singing hymns that soothe your soul.

Bare-footed pilgrims walk around the marbled complex, feeling the history of 400 years seep into their bodies. Others take dips in the water, cleansing themselves before they sit down to pray. A bird flies through the sky, a sky lit by the first lights of dawn. Now picture blood staining the white marble, bodies floating in the water and the terrifying sound of bullets rushing through the air. Taste the fear of the pilgrims as they struggle to understand what's going on. Feel the anguish of a mother leaning over her dead son. Imagine the gold building, punctured with bullet wounds. The marble buildings, painfully beautiful, sit in ruins. Smell the ashes from the burning books, more than a couple hundred years old.

This was Operation Bluestar.

On June 4, 1984, the Indian government stormed the city of Amritsar, the northern Punjab city that is home to the Shri Darbar Sahib Complex. This complex houses the holiest shrine for Sikhs, the Harmindar Sahib (Golden Temple), as well as the Akal Takht, the highest seat of spiritual and temporal authority for Sikhs. There are many questions surrounding this attack and most of these questions remain unanswered after eighteen years. What follows is an attempt to reconstruct and analyse what we know. To this day, however, the facts remain difficult to discern. Surrounded by political intrigue, the question of independence for the Sikh Nation of Khalistan remains clouded in uncertainty.

The Attack - Operation Bluestar

On June 2, the Akali Dal, the political party attesting to represent the Sikhs of Punjab, declared another round of civil disobedience against the Indian government. The Akali Dal and other groups had been campaigning for decades for more autonomy, the rights to their water and to electricity.

Due to inaction on the part of the Indian government, a small group of Sikhs became militant in their quest to gain rights for Punjab. These groups were fed up with how the Indian government had been treating Punjab, and took up arms as they tried to get things changed in the state.

In 1983, the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared President's Rule over Punjab, due to the escalating violence in the state. Under President's rule, the police had free reign over the state, issuing "arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial executions and torture," according to the Human Rights Watch Organization. In fact, the period after 1983 saw a dramatic increase in human rights violations by the police and government on its own people in the world's largest democracy.

Once President's Rule was declared, the group of militants moved into the Shri Darbar Sahib Complex, where they would remain until their deaths in 1984.

At the same time that the Akali Dal renewed their campaign of civil disobedience in Punjab, thousands of pilgrims were staying in Amritsar as they celebrated a special holy day for Sikhs.

Indira Gandhi addressed the Sikhs on All-India Radio, telling them to drop their civil disobedience campaign and to, "not shed blood" but to shed hatred." The next day, when the Indian army was ordered into Punjab, the army decided that it would take care of shedding blood.

On June 3, a statewide curfew that would remain for almost ten years was imposed in Punjab as train service was halted and foreign journalists were deported out of the state. The domestic press was also forbidden from reporting anything about any army action in Punjab.

The next morning, the Indian army, along with the Punjab police, surrounded the Shri Darbar Sahib Complex. A warning was announced on loud speakers urging the pilgrims to leave the complex. This same complex was where the militants were hiding out.

It was also a peaceful religious sanctuary.

The full assault on the Shri Darbar Sahib Complex, house to the holiest Sikh shrines, began on the morning of June 4 and lasted until June 6. During the attack, the Sikh militants within the complex fought an armed battle against the army.

Over a thousand innocent pilgrims were killed in the crossfire. Others were killed by the army. However, according to the official government White Paper on Operation Bluestar, only 493 people died. Media and international human rights organizations stated numbers in the thousands.

Not only people were lost in Operation Bluestar. A Sikh library, holding books and artifacts over four hundred years old, was burned down, and everything inside was lost. The Akal Takht, the second most religious shrine to Sikhs, was destroyed.

This attack, that has scarred the Sikh population of the world, was described as one of the worst of its kind by a government on its own people. Mary Anne Weaver, a British correspondent with the Sunday Times, summed up the attack on the Shri Darbar Sahib Complex:

"Not since independence [in 1947, from the British] had the army been used in such numbers - about 15,000 troops took part in the assault, with another 35,000 standing by - to put down an internal rebellion. Not even in the more ruthless days of the [British] empire had the army been used to storm such an important religious shrine."

Aftermath - The Delhi Riots

Who do we blame for what happened in 1984? The militant Sikhs who were occupying the Shri Darbar Sahib Complex in Amritsar? The general who commanded his army to attack the most holiest shrines to Sikhs everywhere? Or do we blame Indira Gandhi, prime Minister of India, and the first woman to ever lead a democratic country in the world?

Gandhi's bodyguards chose to blame her. On October 31, 1984, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh shot and killed Indira Gandhi.

When Gandhi's death was reported on the news, a huge majority of the Hindu population of Delhi became possessed. Mobs of people gathered, shouting slogans of "Khoon ka badla khoon!" or, "Seek blood for blood!"

These masses of people decided that since Indira Gandhi had been assassinated, all the Sikhs would have to pay for the death. Neighbourhoods in which Sikhs lived beside Hindus suddenly became a battleground where Sikhs were beaten, tortured and then killed.

It's amazing how the mob mentality took over thousands of normally peaceful people. Hindus who worked alongside Sikhs suddenly became rabid killers, raping the same women they called "Sister," and beating and then setting on fire the men they used to call, "Brother."

Most accounts of the Delhi Riots point towards political leaders as the ones who instigated the violence. An inspector at Palam airport in Delhi told a tale of how Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv Gandhi - upon hearing of his mother's assassination - told those present, "My mother has been shot dead. What are you doing here? Go, and take revenge. No turban should be seen."

Over the course of four days, more than 5,000 Sikhs were murdered and 20,000 injured as a result of the riots, while the police stood by and did nothing. The Sikhs appealed to the police to save them, but the police turned a blind eye to the massacres of innocent people.

The national television station, Doordarshan, continually ran footage of large crowds chanting anti-Sikh slogans. "Khoon ka badla khoon!", was heard among other chants of, "burn their turbans!" and, "let no Sikh survive!" This type of press coverage did nothing but increase the anger of the mobs.

The inaction by government officials and the police was inexcusable as thousands of Sikhs died. Repeated pleas were sent from different opposition members of Parliament to the Home Minister (equivalent of our premier), P.V. Narasimha Rao, to bring the army into Delhi to restore the peace. However, Rao took no action in ending the riots and restoring any peace in Delhi until November 3, which was the day of Indira Gandhi's funeral when many foreign diplomats and politicians would be in Delhi to attend.

An eyewitness of the slaughter, Anwar Kaur, reported later in court how a Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, led the mob that attacked and killed her husband as well as set fire to a Sikh temple near her house.

"They were armed with lathis [sticks] and other weapons. They hit my husband with lathis till he died,'' Kaur said. The mob brought bedding from inside of her house and placed it on her husband's body. The body was then doused with kerosene and set on fire.

Another woman, who saw her family burned alive, reported how she was repeatedly humiliated by the angry mobs who tore her clothes off of her body. She also told of how other Sikh women who tried to flee their burning homes were raped by the mobs.

It's particularly disturbing that politicians led these mobs and the police stood back and did nothing. The same people who were elected to represent their constituents, turned on the Sikhs and led the mobs in their massacre. This is frightening because we tend to place a lot of trust in our politicians, and when they break this trust, it's hard for people to ever trust them again.

This is what happened in Punjab with the Sikhs. People became so disillusioned with the treatment that they were receiving from their own governments that many of them turned to militancy. In the decade after Operation Bluestar and the Delhi Riots, the Sikhs lost any of the trust that they had in the government and police as well.

Late 1980s To mid 1990s

The carnage didn't end with the Delhi riots. In the following decade, over 100,000 Sikhs would be killed in "encounters" with the police. Without warrants or any proof, police took advantage of their rule over Punjab and tortured, raped, looted and killed Sikhs. Rarely was there ever proof that these Sikhs were militants or terrorists. In fact, it is suspected that the militant population of Punjab was very small.

Police enjoyed using various methods of torture on their victims, including electric shocks to the genitals, hanging people by their feet from the ceiling, and beating them for days on end. Avtar Singh, a candidate for the Punjab Assembly, was tortured with a hot iron and electric shocks and killed by the Indian police.

Another example of the barbaric behavior of Indian Security forces. This is the treatment Sikhs get in the so-called "largest democracy in the world." Bhai Avtar Singh Ji, pictured below had received the following barbaric treatment for being a Sikh :

• His abdomen was burnt by using a hot ironing-press.
• His right fore-arm was cut open.
• All the major bones in both of his arms were broken.
• Hot pinchers were used on his wrists to poke burn his skin.
• Hot Steel rods were used to burn the soles of his feet (not shown)
  

This is just one case, of literally thousands. Amnesty International and other Human Rights Organizations have been crying out about these abuses for decades, while the Panjabi people like myself are living comfortably and whenever someone mentions a case of torture, or police brutality its taboo. We begin covering our ears, and try changing the subject.

There are many horror stories. Gurnam Singh was an unmarried man from the village of Dabwala Kalan in the Gurdaspur district. He was unmarried and lived with his parents. He was also a baptized Sikh and was active in religious and political activities.

Gurnam was picked up illegally in June of 1984 by Batala police and tortured brutally in their custody. The police continued to raid his house and harass all his family members. Fed up by the constant harassment, Gurnam left his house and joined the ranks of Sikh militants. However, the attacks on his family continued as police picked up his father Shingara Singh, his mother Mahinder Kaur, his brothers Avtar Singh and Rachhpal Singh, Rachhpal's wife Harjit Kaur and several other relatives. They were kept regularly in illegal custody and tortured for information on Gurnam's whereabouts. His father Shingara Singh, and his brothers Avtar Singh and Hardial Singh were implicated in cases under Tada [anti-terrorism law] on charges of harbouring terrorists. They were acquitted after a trial by special courts.

In November 1988, Gurnam's third brother Rachhpal Singh and his wife Harjit Kaur were picked up by Inspector Santa Singh (who also had CIA affiliation) and Sargeant Gurpal Singh of Batala Sadar Station. First, both of them were tortured brutally within the village itself. Then they were beaten up with canes. Harjit Kaur was publicly humiliated and tortured with a thick wooden roller pressed on her thighs by four policemen, and by other methods. After their public torture in the village itself, Rachhpal Singh and Harjit Kaur were taken to the Sadar police station. There again, they were tortured brutally under the supervision of special police commanders, but were finally released after one week thanks to an intervention from the village council. Throughout this period, the family members, including their women, suffered immeasurably.

Conclusion

When I hear people talking about what a great country India is, with its rich culture, beautiful people and complex history, I wonder. I wonder if these people are not just caught up in the strummings of Ravi Shankar's sitar, or the glitter of the gold and lush silks, or the flavours of the exotic spices?

I wonder if they have any idea of what goes on in India, if they know what the people go through, besides the occasional National Geographic shot of the poor slums in Calcutta. Do they know that the world's largest democratic country has raped its own people? Murdered the farmers who produce the very wheat that other states depend on? Tortured the people whose martyrs died protecting the right to practise one's own religion in India, regardless of what religion it was?

So few people know what happened in that chilling decade following 1984. That is what is so frightening. If people don't know what happened, isn't it that much easier for history to repeat itself?

There are too many unanswered questions surrounding Operation Bluestar. Was the government justified in its attack on the Shri Darbar Sahib Complex in Amritsar? Could the attack have been avoided? The reports from the government conflict with eyewitness accounts. What was the real motive behind the attack? Why were all foreign journalists deported from Punjab on the eve of Operation Bluestar? What was the Indian government afraid of?

These cases of torture are NOT a thing of the past, you just have to look at two recent detainees Bhai Panjab Singh (UK) and Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara. The only reason we hear about these cases of torture is because these people are 'high profile' Sikhs, many are still in jails since the 1980's WITHOUT TRIAL who are simply forgotten.

Singhs still in prison for 20+ years, and if they are released they're just hounded constantly in their old age. By contrast in Africa, Nelson Mandela went to prison and became Prime Minister.

Sikh Women Have Suffered NO LESS!

The only way these things are going to stop, is if we realize as a community, or atleast accept these things are happening.

How can a problem be solved, such a huge problem, if we dont even accept it exists?

There have been many recent efforts to promote awareness of female infanticide, a problem rife in Panjab for centuries. It is only after accepting a problem that we can begin to address it.

I recall a quote from the late Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He said:

"Physical death I don't fear, death of conscience is a sure death."

Can India forget this death in its historical conscience?

WAKE UP!!! AND WAKE YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS UP!!! THIS IS REAL!!!