The Sikh Federation UK are hosting an open invite event to launch “Sacrificing Sikhs”, their official report on UK Government involvement in the 1984 Amritsar Massacre. Register to attend here.

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After over three years of investigations, Sikh Federation UK will be unveiling an official report on UK government involvement in the events which led to the 1984 Sikh genocide on Wednesday November 1st in Parliament.

Sacrificing Sikhs is an SFUK commissioned report based on independent research of declassified UK Government documents from the National Archives, superseding an inquiry made Sir Jeremy Heywood in 2014. The report will be released on November 1st in Parliament. Full event details can be below.

“Parliament has been misled by the investigation as reported by William Hague”

SFUK said of the event, “The Sikh Federation began its own research of the declassified files held at the National Archive in order to piece together the gaps in the inadequate review conducted by Sir Jeremy Heywood.

“The report is an attempt at a reconciliation of what was reported by William Hague to the House of Commons on 4 February 2014 with what was available in the archive. The contrarian nature of what has been found is compelling and brings in to focus the validity, integrity and nature of the review conducted by Heywood, to the point that it wouldn’t be unreasonable to consider that parliament has been misled by the investigation as reported by William Hague in the House of Commons.”

A push for an independent public inquiry was part of the Sikh Manifesto, a document produced by SFUK to empower British Sikh voters in the run-up to the 2015 General Election. However, with the truth not forthcoming via political means, the group commenced their own investigations which will culminate in the release of Sacrificing Sikhs.

It was in 2014 that the world became aware of UK Government collusion between Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government and the Indira Gandhi led Indian state prior to “Operation Blue Star”, the infamous Indian government attack on Darbar Sahib (the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar) in June 1984. An inquiry revealed the Indian state were advised by the UK Government on the assault, which saw a massacre of thousands of civilians. First exposed by Labour MP Tom Watson (who will be in attendance and speaking at the event), the discovering of the liaison between the state authorities regarding the callous attack sent shock-waves through the British Sikh community upon its discovery, especially with the realisation that the welfare of Sikhs was placed second to trade deals between the nations.

The events of Operation Blue Star have remained a gaping wound for the international Sikh community for over 30 years, due to killings of civilians by Indian state authorities not just in Amritsar but across Punjab as police imposed a shoot-on-sight policy at road blocks all over the state. The destruction of the Darbar Sahib complex and the burning down of a historic library by the Indian Army after the attack also add to the ceaseless hurt Sikhs feel due to Operation Blue Star.

The resulting Amritsar Massacre directly led to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984, which fueled the Sikh genocide. After her death, mobs spent days killing, raping and robbing Sikhs in revenge attacks thereafter all over India. With proven state complicity in the 1984 Sikh genocide, the fact that no state figures have ever faced justice further prevents the wounds of 1984 from healing for Sikhs.

A deeper look into reasons of Sikh hurt in regards to the events of 1984 will be discussed through the release of 1984: India’s Guilty Secret, a book by Pav Singh described as a “shocking exposé of a true-life Orwellian plot of nightmarish proportions”.

Hosting the launch will be Preet Kaur Gill, MP of Edgbaston and the first ever female Sikh MP. Also speaking on the day will be respected Human Rights lawyer Darragh Mackin, SFUK advisor Dabinderjit Singh, along with many political figures and Sikh community representatives from across the UK.

The event is highly anticipated not just in the UK but across the world, with revelations having the potential to cause the Sikh community to review its relationship with the UK Government.

SFUK Chairperson Bhai Amrik Singh added, “Despite extensive censorship, this report is a real eye-opener into some of the painful facts that both the UK and Indian governments wanted to remain hidden. Promises of trade were enough for Thatcher to sanction and encourage Sikhs to be sacrificed in their homeland and for civil liberties to be suspended for the law-abiding British Sikh community.”