Jammu : Thirty-one years after he was killed in ‘Operation Blue Star’ in Amritsar, Punjab, separatist militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale is still regarded as a martyr and ‘sant’ by Sikhs living in Jammu.
Sant Tejwant Singh, the chief Sikh priest at Dana Singh Gurdwara Sahib in the Sikh-dominated Nanak Nagar area of Jammu city, strongly believes Bhindranwale was a sant (saint) and martyr of the Khalsa Pant.
“He sacrificed his life for the Sikh Pant. He was a sant who deserves all respect and honour from the Sikh community,” Sant Tejwant Singh said. Around 300,000 Sikhs live in the Jammu region. Asked why the militant Sikh leader gathered arms inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar, he said: “It was the government that allowed the free passage of arms into the temple.”
Hundreds of Sikhs earlier this week protested over the removal of posters of Bhindranwale in Jammu. Life began limping back to normalcy on Saturday as the authorities withdrew the army from areas that saw street protests.
Sant Tejwant Singh said Bhindranwale lives in the hearts and minds of the community, and blamed the state administration for inciting trouble by removing his posters.
Advocate Surinder Singh, member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, said: “The way he (Bhindranwale) was killed, Sikhs believe he is a martyr and sant.”
