The subcontinent India was divided in 1947 into India and Pakistan. The founder of Pakistan Quaide-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah possessing wisdom, deep vision and far sightedness had offered the Sikh leadership to join hands with Pakistan as an autonomous Khalistan. The mad Sikh leader Master Tara Singh had repudiated the offer and standing at the footsteps of Punjab assembly waving his naked sword in the air had vowed and declared that Pakistan would be at the cost Muslim blood.
According to the game plan of hawkish Hindu political leadership, the leadership of Sikhs had been taken into their confidence through promises and assurances. The Sikh leaders had fallen into the Hindu conspiracy net and agreed to carry out the massacre of Muslims all over Punjab in the 1940s. The Sikhs and Hindus involved in killing were mostly low cast or poor. Majority of the middle and upper class Sikhs had neither appreciated this Muslim killings nor were they involved in it. In fact many of the Sikhs had given Muslim families refuge in their houses and had protected and looked after them well.
Sikhs and Muslims had been living together for a long time peacefully, sharing each other’s happiness and sorrows. However, Hindu leadership had whispered into the ears of Sikhs to become enemies of Muslims and we have never been able to recover from the damage that the Hindus did at the time of partition. I myself have witnessed the killing and violation of a Muslim mother and daughter at their hands, and their cries still haunt me.
In India in the 1960s, a change in the political atmosphere had started amongst the younger Sikh generation in the Sikh dominated province of Punjab. The Sikhs noticing the Hindu dominated independent India on one side and a Muslim dominated independent Pakistan on their other side. The awakening for a desire for freedom and independence had started and was felt amongst the Sikhs. The government of India taking notice of this change had immediately decided to divide Punjab to weaken the Sikh domination in Haryana and Punjab.
In spite of this, the Khalistan movement had not subsided. In the 1980s severe police crackdown had been carried out, in which hundreds of young Sikhs had been killed. The movement had temporarily subsided. The Sikh leader of the Khalistan movement Bhindran Wala and his companions hidden in the Golden Temple had continued the movement. At last Prime Minister Indira Ghandi finally ordered the military operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple to clear the hide-outs of Sikh leaders and completed the mission. During the military operation, the temple was damaged at various places, which infuriated the entire Sikh community. Consequently Mrs. Indira Ghandi, the Prime Minister of India, was assassinated by her Sikh guard.
I have lived and passed most part of my early life in a Sikh state of East Punjab. Sikhs are brave and sincere friends but revengeful enemies. Regarding their bravery, Sikhs of Doaba Jalandhar particularly are said to be so brave that they kill their enemy, go straight to police station, surrender themselves along with the arms used, facilitate the job of police and decision of the court and proudly jumps over the deck for hanging. The Sikhs are now determined to achieve a sovereign Khalistan, I am sure that they would succeed in their mission. The wealthy and influential Sikh leaders living in UK and USA who have kept the Khalistan movement alive are frequently seen on electronic media speaking in favour of Khalistan, highlighting its strategic advantages to Pakistan, and are now asking Pakistan, after seventy years, for political support at world forums. They have also started to pressurise its and UK Governments to help and solve the issue of Khalistan.
Remember, keeping in view the seventy years history of Pakistan and India, relations can never be peaceful, whichever ruling political party is in power in both countries due to the clash of national and international interests. It would continue as such in the future. In 1971, Sheikh Mujib-Ur-Rehman, according to the great game of India and its collaboration, had declared the Bangladesh government in exile and set up Bangladesh radio station in Kolkata city.
Therefore in the prevailing circumstances and geo-political developments around Pakistan, when the political and diplomatic relations between Pakistan and India are at their lowest level, India is threatening to destabilise it. The government of Pakistan should seriously think about allowing Sikhs to setup a radio station at Nankana Sahib.
Today the younger generation of Kashmir is struggling hard and sacrificing for freedom, therefore Sikhs should openly declare their sympathies with Kashmiris and practically help them. It is therefore hoped, this time that the Sikhs will act in their own real interests, unlike their past, because it is also in the interest of the freedom of Khalistan. An independent Khalistan is a reality written on the wall.
The government of India taking notice of this change had immediately decided to divide Punjab to weaken the Sikh domination in Haryana and Punjab.