A
devastating attack on the gurudwara[1]
had left the Sikhs in tears. Approximately two hundred people were inside the
gurudwara when the attack started in the morning of 25th March 2020 around
7 a.m. Taliban denied any involvement, but the
Islamic State asserted responsibility for the attack. According to The
Guardian, thirty years ago the Sikhs were 500,000 strong in the country, but
later during the rise of Taliban, many Sikhs fled the country; only 300
families are staying there now.
The
intel says the real target was India because of the Indian troops present
in Afghanistan. According to Hindustan Times, the Taliban was responsible for
the attack. The information reached Delhi says the strike was ordered at the
behest of the Pakistani Deep State. It should also be noted that a
deal was signed between Taliban and the US for the removal of the US
military from the country. Because of the peace-talks, the Taliban may not want
to ruin everything, so denied the involvement.
A man
from Kerala (an Indian state) is said to be one of the terrorists who attacked
the gurudwara. The family didn’t file any complaint for the missing son,
they just said he was not in contact with them.
On the
other hand, people are pulling the Indian Agencies to blame for the attack. Chittisinghpura
massacre in 2000 is said to be the work of Indian Army where 35 Sikhs were
killed during the visit of the then US President Bill Clinton. The killers came
in the uniform of Indian Army. The then Secretary of States Madeleine Albright
said the Hindu Militants[2]
were involved in the massacre. Barry
Bearak wrote a long article in NYT Magazine. Lt. General KS Gill said the involvement of
Indian Army, not at the higher level but upto the captain level.
In any
country, where the government is involved in human rights violation, or where the
land is turned into a conflict zone or armed struggle, you have to be very
careful. Only a foolish person will say the army was not involved in any heinous
acts with the orders from the above. But one must not forget it that not
everything bad happening in a country can be said to be done by police or army.
Also, not all the killing is done by the people who picked the weapons. This is
why I said ‘be very careful.’ A land where the blood is spilled, there are
three sides of any story you hear; sometimes consisting with each other, sometimes
totally contradictory:
1.
Story of those who mourn the dead.
2.
Story of the nationalists.
3.
Story of the bureaucrats.
I hope
in near future the Sikhs will be settled in Afghanistan, like they were before
the country became a war-zone. The gurudwaras all around the world should be protected
by the Sikhs. In hindsight, one may say the preparedness was needed to guard the
place, but the Sikhs who are outnumbered in other countries, with no weapons to
protect themselves, especially against the automatic guns, can’t conceive or do
something to keep their kin and the holy places away from the terror.
We can
only pray to Waheguru that not only the gurudwaras but also any holy place in
the world shouldn’t be attacked, innocents shouldn’t be killed … hoping the
governments or the terrorist outfits which are terrorizing the common people,
killing innocents, will die one day. And the world will be in equilibrium with
Waheguru.
After
the brutal killing of the Sikhs, the Indian right-wingers flooded the social
media platforms[i] to
show the necessity of the CAA (a contentious Indian citizenship bill which was
changed into law). The Sikhs protested against it, with other religious groups
including the Hindus and Muslims. Shaheen Bagh had become a hub of anti-CAA
protests where the women sat for days against the bill. The Sikhs served
the langar there. A newbie in BJP, Kapil Mishra, tweeted a
horrible tweet[3] about
the attack on the gurudwara, and still no action is taken against him.
As the
right-winger came out to shake the bonds of Sikh-Muslim unity[4],
the Sikhs detested that and mentioned the Sikh Massacre 1984. When this
inhumane incident appeared in discussions, the BJP right-winger blamed the
Congress, rather than the Hindus. I have the experience of discussing with people
who blame the party rather than the religion. Why, when such incidents come
where the people from Islam, even if majority of Muslims loathe the horrible
acts of the terrorist organizations, kill innocents, the right-wingers don’t
call out the ideology but the religion? Because the bond that the Sikhs share
with Muslims can be shaken. This is not limited to the Muslim and Sikh Unity.
During the Punjabi Sooba Morcha, the relationship between Sikhs and Hindus were
soured by the politicians to make the Hindus call their mother-tongue as Hindi when
they spoke fluent Punjabi.
I fear
the purpose of the propaganda to break the Sikh-Muslim bond is to have the
Sikhs on the side of the ideology of the RSS or Sangh Parivaar. They call all
the Indic faiths as Hinduism, including Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Once the
Sikhs became aware that they are dependent on other ideologies or religion, they
will become a shadow rather than a reality. This the RSS can’t do unless there’s
a Sikh-Muslim unity. So to drive a wedge between the Sikhs and Muslims, we see
a lot of propaganda blaming today’s Muslims for every act or atrocity in the
past.
What I
would like to remind the young Sikhs is, as they are the torchbearer of the
Sikh Values in this century, don’t hate someone based on their religion. I know
many of you blame the Hindus for 1984. Even if you blame them, you can’t blame
all the Hindus living in the world, like the Indian right-wingers are doing. This
makes us them. We are better than that.
So any
atrocities that were inflicted on the Sikhs or that will be caused in future,
we will still stand strong with those religions in their needs. The history
shows the Sikhs won’t spare the preparators; and they won’t touch the innocent.
We have great ethos. Let’s not waste our time to become something that we are
not.
Right-winger troll armies are the creation of
the ideology of hatred. Our Gurus didn’t teach us that. We love everyone
regardless of their religion or country, but we don’t forget the pain. Make
that pain as a weapon to talk about the atrocities inflicted upon the innocents
in the world. Don’t go hating someone, because on that road you will only have
a perpetual walk of hatred and you won’t have time to care for needy.
[2] Nanak
Singh, the sole survivor of the massacre, said the killers chanted ‘Jai Mata Di’
while parting away.
[3] ‘11 Sikhs
killed in Kabul, attack on gurudwara. Painful, horrible, inhumane, unforgivable.
Those who served langar in Shaheen Bagh, what will they be thinking today?’
[4] One of the
most-used argument is that the Khalsa was created to kill the Muslims, as if
there were no battle between the Sikhs and Hindus. Majority of people try to
persuade the Sikhs to make them jump to their side to dehumanize the Muslims.
The Sikhs, who are aware of this propaganda model, have no effect over them. I
don’t know when, if it is possible, this propaganda will stop.
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