Many in India may not have heard of Referendum-2020, being planned by US-based radical group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) in support of a separate state of Khalistan, but the Punjabi diaspora is seized of the matter and already divided on it.
“Where are they building Khalistan?” is the question members of the diaspora ask in the US when the issue of referendum is raised. “We are building it surely,” replies SFJ legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, without answering where or when.
It’s an interesting situation developing here. The word Khalistan has the Sikh community divided and united at the same time. Most gurdwaras in the US have started a campaign for the referendum. But many members of the community term it an impractical idea.
When the Khalistan movement became active in India and abroad, the Indian government claimed that “Pakistan armed, trained and to a certain extent financed Sikh militants.”
Khalistan: Almost Three Decades After Operation Blue Star, Movement For Sikh Homeland Fading Away
The Indian government has recently blamed Pakistan for seeking to revive Sikh militant separatism -- i.e, the ‘Khalistan’ movement -- in India, thereby renewing New Delhi’s fears that even in a new era of democracy in Pakistan, Islamabad continues to support independence movements designed to destabilize the country.
Specifically, the home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde accused Pakistan’s formidable intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of training Sikh youths within Pakistan’s borders to carry out terror attacks on Indian soil.
“The Khalistan movement today appears to be stronger among some exile communities than in Punjab itself, where it now has very little support indeed,” Blank noted.
“Support for the separatist movement was widespread [in Punjab and other parts of India] in the 1980s, especially following the desecration of the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star. But that was a long time ago -- today's [Sikh] youth (the likeliest recruiting pool for militants) weren't even born then. Anybody with first-hand recollection of Blue Star is now approaching middle-age.
Khalistan is the Sikh homeland. By definition it means land of pure people. Currently it is under Indian government's control.Huge Amount of people support it movement.Indian military have forcely control in the indian punjab.
