Attack on Nankana Sahib Gurudwara exposes Khalistanis like nothing else

On Friday, disturbing images and videos emerged from Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, which is the birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev. A Muslim mob laid siege of the Gurudwara Janamsthaan and also indulged in vandalism and stone pelting at the holiest of Sikh shrines. Moreover, the leader of this mob was also seen threatening to raze down the Gurudwara and evict every single Sikh from Nankana Sahib. He further threatened to rename the town with an Islamic name– Ghulam-e-Mustafa. The mob was led by the family of the accused in a case of kidnapping and forced conversion of a 19 year-old Sikh girl Jagjit Kaur.

While this shameful incident exposes the reality of violent majoritarianism and Islamism in Pakistan, it has also busted the hypocrisy of the ISI funded Khalistanis and the Referendum 2020 gang. While the Khalistanis speak of some imaginary violence and persecution of Sikhs in India today, and gush with love and affection for Pakistan, they have gone silent on the attack in Nankana Sahib. While they somehow imagine that Sikhs are being tormented in India, they never really woke up to the persecution of the community in Pakistan. This might have something to do with the fact that most of Khalistani organisations and separatists are funded by Pakistan’s ISI.

While the Khalistanis despise India- the only country where Sikhs have prospered, they have an unexplainable, unnatural affinity for Pakistan. In fact, loyalty to Pakistan and ISI takes priority over Sikh welfare for the Khalistanis.

This is the reason why pro-Khalistan leader, Gopal Singh Chawla who was spotted at the Sikh shrine was spotted instructing the media to shut their cameras. Even when the Sikh community came under a fierce and dangerous attack from an Islamist mob, the secessionist leader wanted to ensure that the grim reality of Pakistan tormenting the Sikhs remained hidden. Protecting the interests of the Sikh community was not even on his agenda. 

While Khalistanis have come out proving their loyalties to Pakistan and the ISI time and again, including during the protests against Article 370 organised by Pakistan and the ISI outside the Indian Embassy. For Pakistan however, the Khalistanis never meant anything more than a means of pursuing their sinister policy of bleeding India through a thousand cuts. In fact, former ISI chief, Hamid Gul, had said that in so many words to the then Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto. He had said, “Madam, keeping Punjab destabilized is equivalent to the Pakistan army having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers.” Terrorism in Punjab resulted in the death of more than 12,000 civilians since the year 1981 apart from several hundreds of security personnel casualties. Therefore, the Khalistanis have played into the hands of Pakistan and ISI by falling prey to their strategy of fomenting unrest in the state of Punjab. 

Now, even when the state of Punjab has been rid of terrorism, the ISI-sponsored Khalistanis are trying to make all possible efforts to foment terrorism in Punjab. Hands in glove with Pakistan, the Khalistanis are trying to carry out terror strikes in Punjab with Pakistan’s help. What they don’t realise (or don’t want to realise) is the fact that India is the only country that speaks and cares for the Sikh community. On the other hand, the Islamic Republic along with which they are trying to create unrest in the Sikh majority state of Punjab has systematically persecuted the Sikh community. 

Ever since terrorism was wiped out in Punjab, Pakistan has been unable to penetrate the minds of the Sikh youth in India. It is mostly the Khalistanis settled abroad who are indulging in anti-India propaganda and trying to revive the separatist sentiment in the state of Punjab. Pakistan saw the Kartarpur corridor as an opportunity to exploit the Sikh emotion, and to enrage the Sikhs with anti-India propaganda. According to former Punjab DGP, Shashi Kant, ISI operatives openly interacted with the Sikh pilgrims with the aim of exploiting their feelings. 

While Imran Khan tried to project Pakistan as the messiah of Sikhs with the Kartarpur corridor- a sham that was also backed by people like Sidhu in India. However, pro-Khalistan and Bhindranwale’s posters on the Kartarpur site had exposed the real intent behind Pakistan’s ostensible bonhomie towards the Sikhs. In fact, a former Pakistan Army Chief had also spilt the beans on Pakistan’s nefarious agenda by admitting that Pakistan wanted to use Kartarpur for Khalistan terror. 

The Pakistani propaganda around the Kartarpur corridor could have never really lasted for very long. The deadly attack on Sikh pilgrims in Nankana Sahib exposes the sham of Imran Khan’s bonhomie towards the Sikhs. Pakistan is pro-Khalistan but morbidly opposed to Sikhism. Khalistanis too have been loyal only to the cause of Pakistan and the ISI. The interests of the Sikh community never really took precedence for them. The attack on Nankana Sahib, one of the most important Sikh shrines and the complete silence on the part of Khalistanis thus exposes their deracination and sheer hypocrisy.