LONDON – Thousands of Sikhs across the United Kingdom took part in areferendum for an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan, at the QueenElizabeth Centre near the British parliament on Sunday
On this day Indian premier Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 forordering Operation Blue Star in a bid to curb the Sikh movement.
The voting, organsied by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), started at 9am andcontinued till 6pm under the supervision and monitoring of a non-alignedpanel of direct democracy experts, the Punjab Referendum Commission (PRC).
Thousands who took part in the voting process responded to the question:“Should Indian-governed Punjab Be An Independent Country?”
Chartered buses from more than 100 Gurdwaras transported voters to theQueen Elizabeth Centre where large queues formed throughout the day aseager voters aimed to get into the hall to cast their votes. More than 200Sikhs volunteered for the day.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said the SFJ is an international human rightsadvocacy group that spearheads the campaign for Sikhs’ right toself-determination, which is one of the fundamental rights of all peopleguaranteed in the UN Charter.
He said India had propagated for long that only a few dozen Sikhs werebehind the Khalistan movement but the participation by thousands of peoplein India had shown to the world that Khalistan had the support of tens ofmillions of Sikhs across the world.
British Sikh human rights activist Paramjeet Singh Pamma, who had been atthe center of the controversy between India and the UK over his extraditioncase, said that Sikhs have showed up to vote in the referendum, inthousands, to express their “anger” at the Indian government’s actions.
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Pamma, who has been acting as the UK Coordinator for Khalistan Referendum,further stated that the successful participation showed that Sikhs willnever forget what India has done to them to annihilate their identity andhistory. He said that Sikhs have realized that their salvation lies onlywhen they live in an independent homeland called Khalistan.
A leading Sikh activist, Gurcharan Singh said that “India is a fasciststate which believes in the supremacy of Hindus only and doesn’t tolerateother religious minorities”.
He said that the Indian government spent millions of dollars to stop thisreferendum from taking place but added that the resilience of Sikhs hadprevailed. He said thousands came out to register their support for anindependent homeland, Khalistan.
Dupinderjit Singh, who has been actively involved in the Khalistan activismfor decades now, said that the Punjab Referendum is the voice of Sikhs fromall over the world.
“We have shown to the world today that our voice cannot be suppressed.”
