Gurdaspur attack to revive the Khalistan movement?

Gurdaspur district of Punjab woke up to a terror attack early Monday morning. Five terrorists dressed in Army uniform opened fire at the Dinanagar police station. Till now, 12 policemen, 2 convicts inside the lock-up, 6 civilians and 2 terrorists have been killed in the cross-firing that began around 5.30 a.m on Monday.

While the situation is being tackled with more than 300 soldiers on the spot, statements and comments about the issue are being made by those in power and by common people. Among the many, one tweet by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has become the centre of a controversy of sorts. The tweet says:

We strongly condemn cowardly attack on innocent ppl in Punjab. We are with the people of Punjab and hope that culprits wud soon be nabbed Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) July 27, 2015

The public opinion is now split into two sides - one which blames Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party of supporting the Khalistan movement and the other which is upset about questioning the patriotism and nationalism of Punjabis and Sikhs. Amid all of this, a video of Aam Aadmi Party leader Jarnail Singh accepting the demand of Khalistan has re-surfaced -



The conversation on Twitter clearly shows the divide between those who consider the Gurdaspur attack to be a master-plan of Pakistani Khalistan activists to dig up the issue and diverge the focus from the Kashmir issue and of those who consider it an act by either PM Narendra Modi or by Aam Aadmi Party and Delhi CM Arwind Kejriwal. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted

Will be very interested to see what emerges about the identity of the terrorists involved in the Gurdaspur attack this morning 1/2 Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 27, 2015

He further tweeted

The timing of the attack, methodology location are all eerily similar to attacks in the border belt of Jammu 2/2 Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) July 27, 2015

It is to be considered that Omar Abdullah hinted at the terrorists being linked to the Khalistan movement.

Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa made a statement that said "I fear it could be a joint operation between the Jammu and Kashmir terrorists and Khalistani terrorists who are under training in Pakistan's Punjab."

The commander of Operation Blue Star against pro-Khalistan millitants, Lt General KS Brar said "Cannot say that it is revival of the Khalistani movement. ISI wants to take the Punjab back to what was in the 1980s. The state government has been weak. State government wants to release the terrorists. It is disturbing to note that terrorists have come across the border."

However, it is saddening that the patriotism of the Sikh population in India is being questioned, and that people are jumping to baseless assumptions and conclusions.

The Khalistan movement seeks to create a separate country - Khalistan (meaning the land of the pure).

Here are some reactions from the Twitverse. It is quite evident that those who are trending #Khalistan are from Pakistan.

I Stand with #khalistan pic.twitter.com/hbM46sTkzUDanyal Sheikh (@Sheikh899D) July 15, 2015

Time to give birth rights to #Sikhs their own #Khalistan. #LiberateKhalistanSafdar Kamal (@one_more_hope) July 13, 2015

#india should understand the importance of #Khalistan if this wont happened it will be blood sheed in #india #LiberateKhalistanzain (@zain786zainn) July 12, 2015

Indians on the other hand want to wait for the truth to unfold before reaching any conclusions.

It's sad to observe that people are impatiently jumping to the "khalistan revival" conclusion without even waiting for a single clue. Navdeep Singh (@SinghNavdeep) July 27, 2015