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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dalvinder45" data-source="post: 225939" data-attributes="member: 26009">1984-2: At PatialaI reached Patiala on 7 June 1984 and stayed with my brother who was posted in income tax department there. During discussions with him, I shared my experiences of 1984 with him. He was touched and felt pained at the turn of events but he had more than this in his kitty. He told, “You have faced this only for a day. We have been facing the same insult daily. My going to office or going for any purchases is full of such incidences. They treat all of us as terrorists”. “What happened here with you in those days?” I wanted to know. He started: “It was not only Sri Amritsar but entire Punjab was under curfew. Not only Gurdwaras but also any place of Gathering was deeply watched. Helicopters used to roam over our heads every moment of the day. No one was allowed to come out during curfew; not even for taking water, milk or vegetables. Whenever someone came out the helicopter will lower down and aim a gun at the person. The police roamed even in the street. Everywhere, you would find a check post. Even when there was a relaxation to buy vegetables, grocery and milk the checking and questioning was intense. One felt so insulted that it is beyond words. How come all the Sikhs who were known for their patriotism suddenly became terrorists?”“I am not only shocked but also deeply hurt inside. I did not know of this till now.” My reply was muffled.“But that is not the end of it. There is too much more than this. We still face because we do not find to be in a worst position as faced by the Sikhs who went to pay obeisance at Sri Amritsar of other Gurduaras on those dreadful nights. White paper later prepared by Government of India divulged 42 such Gurdwaras. One of these Gurdwaras was Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran just close to us.” His throat was full and he could hardly speak. I was jolted to the hilt to know about attack on Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran and other Gurdwaras in addition to Sri Harmandir Sahib as I did not know anything about it due to blocked media.“What happened at Gurduara Dukh Niwaran?” I was very anxious to know. Gurdwara Dukhniwarn too was attacked on the 4th night. We heard tanks moving into the complex and there were 3-4 loud explosions followed by burst of rifle and machine gun fires for many hours which could be heard all over. A part of the Gurdwara complex lit up in flames, The entire area crackled with the sound. The person staying with in the complex including the pilgrims had to face the wrath. As per the information not a single one was left alive; not even the children or the women. We saw floating bodies in the sarovar as well. They had taken the dead bodies and burnt near village Badunger. I also went to see where the bodies were burnt. I saw iron bangles (Kadas) spread all around. These included small ones belonging to the small children. I cry when I remember these scenes”.[ATTACH=full]23167[/ATTACH] Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran Sahib Patiala“I wish to see both these place.” I enquired. “We can go when the curfew is lifted”, he said. We visited the places at the time of lifting of curfew. I could see the marks of tank tracks in the area of residential complex of Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran. The blood of the innocent spilled on the ground was still fresh. There was not a single room of the serai where the blood was not spluttered all around even on the walls. Smell of the dead and the blown off pieces of the bodies could still be felt. Gurdwara Sahib was in no way in a normal environment. Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib is a historical Gurdwara. According to local tradition, supported by an old handwritten document preserved in the Gurdwara, ninth Guru of Sikhs Guru Tegh Bahadur, during his sojourn at Saifabad (now Bahadurgarh), visited and blessed village Lehl and its inhabitants so that they could be rid of a serious and mysterious sickness which had been their bane for a long time. The Guru visited Lehal on Magh Sudi 5, 1728 Bikram/24 January 1672 and stayed under a banyan tree by the side of a pond. The sickness in the village subsided. The site where Guru Tegh Bahadur had sat came to be known as Dukh Nivaran, literally meaning eradicator of suffering. Devotees have faith in the healing qualities of water in the sarovar attached to the shrine. The place which was helpful in healing the sickness has not been attacked for no reason.The book ‘Amritsar: Mrs. Gandhi’s Last Battle, p. 152) however has different record: “The Golden Temple was not the only Gurdwara to be surrounded. On the same night the army surrounded thrity-seven Sikh temples where they believed Bhindranwale’s followers hasd sought sanctuary, In Patiala the army met with considerable tresistance from inside the Gurdwara Dukhniwafran and they decided to attack it. The operation like the operation in the Golden Tem[ple, was commanded by a Sikh General Gurdial Singh. The army says that twenty people were killed in Patiala Gurdwara, but doctors at Patials hospital say that at least fifty six people died. The army was disappointed at the number of terrorists they captured and killed in thirty seven gurdwaras. Either Bhindranwale’s men were not as widely spread as the army had been led to believe or most of them fled before the soldiers came.The evidence collected from sources on ground however tells different stories. I enquired about Gurdwara Dukhniwaran attack from the executive Committee member and number of sewadars who told me the same things which my brother Dalbir Singh had told. Even at the burial site one could see the iron bangles spread all around as stated by my brother. Ajaib Singh Gill, who was the manager of Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran at the time of Army Operation said that he created bodies of 17 people who had died in around 35 minutes of the attack showing that there was no retaliation from the Sikhs with in the complex and no battle ever took place. No one ever mentioned the name of Major general Gurdial Singh. On the morning of June 6, in no time the Army surrounded the entire Gurdwara with jeeps and tanks (of the armoured division at Patiala?). An armoured car entered the Gurdwara and opened the fire at the sarai. The Gurdwara was surrounded from all the sides and the serai was surrounded from 2 opposite sides. Around 17 people including the pilgrims were killed. Among them were three women pilgrims and a UP labourer. Harvinder Singh Gill from Bathinda who was captured by the Army from Patiala Gurdwar and later sent to jail said: “We were around 35 members of AISSF. Two of us had revolvers while one 95 year old Sikh Baba rattan Singh had a .32 bore weapon. We threw our weapons in the reservoir to avoid any problem to the pilgrims but Rattan Singh did not agree. He fought till his lm ast breath. Around 22 people died during the operation in Patiala.(Bharat Khanna: No records of Deaths at Patiala Gurdwara: Times of India, Jan 7, 2017)As per an inquiry conducted by Justice Tiwana on the orders of Punjab Government, 257 people were shot and killed during the storming of Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran Sahib in Patiala. It was mentioned that about 10,000 soldiers and paramilitary forces sealed Punjab on 01 June 1984. Worshippers and visitors were trapped not only in Sri Harmandir Sahib but also 37 other Gurdwaras which included Dukh Niwaran, Muktsar, Faridkot, Moga, Ropar and Chowk Mehta. The amount of pain and problems of the old, infirm and the children faced due to curfew and blanket ban on anyone going out of house even for food and milk, are insurmountable I was not at all reconciling with the situation. How can they treat us with such dreadfulness? People in general did no wrong. The blanket ban on news about the blue star operation on TV, radio or papers was meant to hide the truth but the way the rumours were spread especially through Pakistan media and also on BBC and by local Hindus, a fear psychosis had spread all around about the inhuman treatment of the Indian Army. There was no doubt that the holocaust left a permanent scar on mind of the Sikhs but there was none to heal this. It was well known that it was the result of politics and the rivalry between Giani Zail Singh who was the then President and the Darbara Singh who had just resigned from Chief Ministership. Smt. Indira Gandhi took the advantage to teach the Sikhs a lesson. The night was too heavy on me. I do not remember if I had slept throughout the night!</blockquote>

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