The Tribune – Hondh-Chillar; AISSF to begin work on memorial next month

Perneet Singh, Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 13. Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh on March 6 this year laid the foundation stone of a memorial dedicated to those killed in the Hondh-Chillar carnage. Since then, there has been no work on the project.

The Jathedar had said: “The houses of Sikh families and the village gurdwara, lying in a shambles, will be preserved and a decision on any additions at the site taken later.” AISSF president Karnail Singh Peer Mohammed had then announced that the Sikh Sangat had donated Rs 25 lakh for the memorial.

A bitterly disappointed Manvinder Singh Giaspur, who had revealed the carnage site, said: “The leaders clearly wanted to draw political mileage from the issue.”

He claimed that his plea to the Akal Takht Jathedar to take the matter forward had got a cold response.

Giaspur said he was now making efforts to set up a trust to raise the memorial at Hondh-Chillar. Giaspur, who hails from Ludhiana, lost his job in Gurgaon after he discovered the carnage site.

Peer Mohammed claimed that the Akal Takht chief had told them he would get the work done through the SGPC. He said the SGPC had been given two months to start work on the memorial. “Now that the SGPC has not responded even after six months, we have decided to start work from November 1.” He said talks were on with the local panchayat for taking over possession of land for the memorial. The Jathedar could not be contacted for comment.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111014/punjab.htm#9

462.The Man in Blue – Haryana, Rewari, Hondh-Chillar, 1984 Anti-Sikh Pogroms

The killing of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards is an act I understand in the context of the time, but I am not really proud of it.

Guru Gobind Singh was willing to visit Aurangzeb after he received a positive answer to his Zafarnama, in spite of the fact that Aurangzeb was responsible for the death of many Sikhs, including Guru’s close family members. Guru demonstrated the Sikh way of life.

This does not take away the enormity of what happened in 1984. Even if you agree with the Indian authorities that Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a terrorist, treating everybody who happened to be in Harmander Sahib during the June 1984 invasion by the Indian Army as terrorists was totally wrong.

What happened in Delhi and in Congress ruled states in India after the killing of Indira Gandhi was in no way justified by the act of the Sikhs bodyguards. Even if  Sikhs agreed with the killing of Indira Gandhi, that does not justify the killings, the rapes or the attacks on houses and Gurdwaras.

What happened in Delhi has been reported by various independent non-Sikh observers, and although the Indian authorities still live in denial, all independent sources agree that organised mass killings of innocents took place while the authorities looked on approvingly.

What happened in villages in Haryana and in other Congress ruled states was only observed by other powerless villagers and any documents pertaining to killings in those locations were easily be lost or buried in a heap of other dusty papers.

These attacks on Sikhs were not riots. I was involved in the group who brought out the Sikh Kristallnacht report, and that report rightly used the word ‘pogrom’. The report has been re-launched by the Network of Sikh Organisations UK (without fully acknowledging its source) and should still be available from them.

Under Adolf Hitler in Germany the ‘Kristallnacht’ was the start of the ‘final solution’ of the ‘Jewish question’. During the ‘Kristallnacht’ organised attacks on Jews and Jewish property took place. The ‘Kristallnacht’ was not a series of spontaneous riots that got badly out-of-hand, it was a state sponsored pogrom.

What are needed in all parts of India where Sikhs were killed and raped, Gurdwaras and Sikh houses set fire to, often with people still inside, are truth and justice committees.

All parties should come together and admit to mistakes made, crimes committed, and achieve reconciliation, as we might have seen between Guru Sahib and Aurangzeb, if the emperor had not passed away before Guru Gobind Singh arrived at his court.