Revival of Khalistan demand in N America

In yet another indication that there are serious efforts to revive Khalistan movement in North America, a group of disgruntled Sikhs held demonstrations in cities across the United States and Canada on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of Operation Blue Star.

Candle light vigils in Gurudwaras on Friday and a series of meetings in about a dozen cities have been planned during the next few days including one outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto.

These Sikhs recently have participated in various Baisakhi Day parades raising slogans of Khalistan, carrying its banners and delivering speeches on independence of Sikhs in Toronto, Vancouver, New York and San Francisco.

''We are for a peaceful solution to this problem through negotiation, through the will of the people,'' Dr Amarjit Singh, of the Washington-based Khalistan Affairs Centre, said. Singh lead a peaceful protest of about three-dozen Sikhs including a dozen women and a couple of children outside the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

While no memorandum was submitted by the organisers - Sikh Youths of America, the protestors were displaying anti-India placards and banners and distributing flyers to passersby. Organisers said that as many as ten different Sikh organisations supported their demonstration outside the UN.

''We are protesting outside the UN because 24 years after the incident there has been no independent public inquiry of attack on our sacred Sikh shrines. It is a symbolic protest. We would keep on coming here until we get justice,'' said Amarjit Singh, who in the recent past has emerged as a prominent Sikh separatist leader.

With his office at the prestigious National Press Building in Washington, Singh has been holding a series of meetings across the US and Canada trying to garner support to revive the separatists Sikh movement again.

''It has not died down. It is only a matter of time,'' he said when asked if he still had the same support base in the community as was the case in 1980s, when Sikhs in the US and Canada were the backbone of the separatist movement.

Sikhs in North America in general and leadership of almost all the Gurudwara in particular support demand of a separate homeland, he claimed. Comparing Punjab with Kosovo and East Timur - Singh demanded that a free plebiscite be held in Punjab to let people decide about their future.

Claiming that nothing has changed, Singh warned if wrongs are not rectified there is a basic reason for the people to keep repeating what they did in 1980s. In recent months, they have been publishing increasing number of advertisements in newspapers.

''Trade is a big aspect of it, I guess, especially for the western countries,'' he said. At the same time, he was hopeful these countries would once again support their cause based on human rights.