Announcing a two-day event to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of Operation Blue Star, Dal Khalsa leaders have said the wounds inflicted on Sikhs 42 years ago are not only fresh, but continue to cause pain and agony to Sikhs worldwide.
Dal Khalsa has given a call for an Amritsar ‘bandh’ on June 6 to mark the anniversary of the operation. Addressing a press conference in this regard on Saturday, the body’s working president, Paramjit Singh Mand, said the ‘bandh’ call was meant to protest against the killings of hundreds of innocent pilgrims and the alleged loot of Sikh Reference Library. He said the call was only for shutting down business, commercial and educational institutions, and not for the stoppage of transportation.
Medical services and traffic would function as normal during the ‘bandh’, Dal Khalsa clarified. Singh said, to commemorate the day, a remembrance parade would be held in the city on the evening of June 5, beginning from Burj Akali Phoola Singh. The party’s secretary for political affairs, Kanwar Pal Singh, said the “assault on the Sikh faith codenamed Operation Blue Star” was a brutal and brazen act, where hundreds of Sikhs were “butchered mercilessly in a span of just 72 hours”.
