Need to dig facts before dubbing

Amritsar, Punjab: Representatives of various Sikh bodies have taken an exception to reports dubbing ‘Kalianwala Khu’ incident as part of the country’s first war of Independence.

A statement issued by Gurpreet Singh of Kendri Sri Guru Singh Sabha says that Sikh bodies held a meeting at the office of International Sikh Confederation in Chandigarh on Wednesday. It mentions the participants felt that the mortal remains excavated from the well could not have been of any Sikh or Punjabi.

They have demanded setting up of a committee of scholars to study the incident and put it in right perspective. It was felt that till the time a complete report on the incident is not prepared, Sikh organisations should refrain from eulogising the event as being part of the Sikh history. “The considered view is that the well was called Kalianwala Khu because it had bodies of Purbias, who had deserted the British army in favour of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the Mughal emperor of Delhi. Sikhs had been at war with the Mughals since the martyrdom of the Sahibzadas in 1704.

“The British army comprising ‘Hindustani’ soldiers, including the Purbias, had attacked Punjab in 1848 (an independent kingdom then), which resulted in Punjab’s annexation to the British. Punjabis not only lost their kingdom but their women folk were also subjected to insult at the hands of these Purbias,” the release reads.