Free Republic

The dawn would have illuminated the pools of blood, as the villagers emerged to count their dead. For all of the night of February 24, 2000, residents of the hamlet of Lanjote had bunkered down, hoping not to be hit by artillery fire arcing across the LoC. The 16 bodies on the streets, though, bore evidence of the precision savagery of the knife, not the shell: 90-year-old Mohammad Alam Wali, and a young couple, Mohammad Murtaza and Kali Begum, had been decapitated. Limbs were severed; heads hacked. The youngest victim, Ahmad Niaz, was just two. With deliberation, it seemed, the...

Britain's involvement in the massacre of hundreds of Sikh separatists in an Indian temple in 1984 will be urgently investigated, David Cameron has ordered. Previously secret documents released by the Government have shown that a SAS officer was drafted in to help the Indian authorities with plans to remove dissident Sikhs from the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine. The plan was ordered with the full knowledge of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the documents say. Hundreds of Sikhs were killed in the attack. Yesterday Sikh leaders said the revelations amounted to the British Government ‘backstabbing” and have called...

NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama will not visit Amritsar during his stay in India next month. While there was no official confirmation from the government, sources said the proposal to visit Amritsar had been dropped owing to reservations of US officials over the kind of scarf Obama would have to wear to visit the Golden Temple. The decision was yet to be communicated to the government till late on Tuesday. However, sources said Obama, who will arrive in Mumbai on November 6, will directly come to Delhi now after a day's stay in the country's commercial capital. Earlier, he...

NEW DELHI — The Golden Temple, a sprawling and serene complex of gleaming gold and polished marble that is the spiritual center of the Sikh religion, is one of India’s most popular tourist attractions. Revered by Indians of all faiths, it is a cherished emblem of India’s religious diversity. So it was no surprise when the gold-plated marvel was touted as the likely third stop on President Obama’s visit to India, scheduled for early November. But the United States has ruled out a Golden Temple visit, according to an American official involved in planning. Temple officials said that American advance...

Just came off the wire - not guilty for Malik.

REMEMBERING MARTYRS ON THE 18TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDIAN ATTACK ON DARBAR SAHIB India sinned in 1984 when it ordered its army to attack on Darbar Sahib and other Sikh shrines to eliminate Sikh warriors specifically Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, since he emerged as a epitome of the Sikh struggle. The ruthless and infamous attack damaged Akal Takht and killed thousands of innocent pilgrimage. In the wake of '84 events, Sikhs realized that there is no respectable place for them in this Hindu India. Hence they made no secret of their goal for Khalistan. Eighteen years have passed there is...