Hardeep Singh

AMRITSAR Complete shutdown was observed on Thursday in Amritsar city on 40^th anniversary of 1984 Indian army attack on Sri Darbar Sahib and Akal Takht to express pain of the wounds caused by the attack. 

Call of the shutdown was given by Sikh organization Dal Khalsa to pay tributes to martyrs and protest against the killings of innocents and loot of Sikh reference library. 

All the commercial outlets, shops, offices of private companies, shopping malls and many of the schools remained shut. Though transportation was exempted from it, the shutdown call also affected it. Very few buses and auto-rickshaws were seen plying on the roads of the city. 

All the markets and roads which witness heavy rush of the people on normal days, wore a deserted look. The people preferred to stay at home. No activists came on the road for forcible shutdown. However, the health services remained normal. No untoward incident took place and the day remained calm, as per Police. 

Dal Khalsa leaders thanked the people of Amritsar for extending cooperation and expressing solidarity with the victims of the 1984 army attack by observing a peaceful and complete Bandh in the city. 

Taking a cue from the speech of Akal Takhat Jathedar, the Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh said the Indian state continues to unleash the policy of repression on Sikhs by not releasing the Sikh political prisoners, slapping draconian laws on Sikh youth and eliminating Sikh activists on foreign shores.