Sikh temple shooting brings to mind 1984′s bungled “Operation Blue Star”

By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: August 5, 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY – Just last week, Red Dirt Report attended an Institute of Interfaith Dialog dinner featuring panelists of the three Abrahamic faiths – Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

After the discussion, questions were asked and one of the few questions came from a Sikh man. It was a thoughtful question and something that certainly added to that night’s dialogue. Read our report here.

So, when we learn that someone – a white male in his 30’s – goes into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in the city of Oak Creek, near Milwaukee, and shoots and kills people for no reason, we are deeply saddened and concerned.

This should not have happened. And while we do not know who this white male was – shooting and killing a congregation mainly made up of people of Indian origin (Punjab mostly) — it is disturbing regardless.

And as we noted in our piece “2012 or 1984,” we see echoes of the year 1984 occuring in 2012, from the Olympics to recent mass shootings this year as we saw in the summer of 1984 (San Ysidro, California McDonald’s massacre).

This shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. brings to mind Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s 1984 Indian military operation, known as Operation Blue Star, that targeted Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar in the Punjab state. It was a bloody operation with the Indian army troops in tanks, helicopters and armored vehicles going against the armed Sikh separatists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who would be killed in the operation on June 6, 1984. All in all 492 civilians were killed, and some reports said as many as 1,500. This incident caused an uproar in the Sikh community worldwide and led two of Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards to assassinate her out of revenge on October 31, 1984.

Interestingly, long-time and well-respected Indian journalist, Kuldip Nayar, just released a book called Beyond the Lines, which termed Sikh militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as “a creation of Congress.” While this suggestion has angered radical Sikhs in India, one man familiar with that situation back in 1984 noted that the Indian Congress’ “involvement in promotion and management of Bhindranwale in concerned, it is too well known … and when you play politics with extremism and terrorism, it is not good for the country.” Was that event an inside job? A false-flag of sorts? It remains shrouded in controversy 28 years later.

And regarding that quote about getting political mileage out of terrorism, we couldn’t agree more, particularly with concern high in America in regards to 2^nd Amendment rights and the United Nations seeking to crack down further on gun rights in the U.S.

And back to Operation Blue Star, it is still regarded as a complete disaster and one of the low points in modern Indian history. Regardless, Sikh radical Bhindranwale remains, to this day, a martyr by many Sikhs around the world.

Now, we do not know much at this time about what exactly unfolded at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin other than six male Sikhs were reportedly shot dead and a seventh – the alleged shooter – was shot and killed by a police officer at the scene.

Sikhs, known to wear turbans, are often mistaken in the West as being Muslims and as we recall, in the weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, Sikhs were targeted in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as occurred in Mesa, Arizona on Sept. 15, 2001. It was that day when Frank Silva Roque shot and killed Balbir Singh Sodhi at a gas station in that city. Roque would be found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death but it was later changed to life in prison when he was found to suffer from low IQ and mental illness. If that name sounds familiar, Frank A. Silva – an actor and a completely different person – played the nightmarish evil spirit “Killer Bob” in the classic synchromystic 1990-91 TV series Twin Peaks.

Eerily, actor Silva was born on Halloween Day 1949 (35 years to the day before Indira Gandhi was assassinated for her role in pushing Operation Blue Star) and died six years and two days before Frank Silva Roque went on his rampage where he was heard screaming “I am a patriot! I stand for America all the way!”

And on August 4, 2002, Sodhi’s brother Sukhpal “was shot to death while driving a taxi cab in San Francisco, California.” That was 10 years ago yesterday.

In light of the Aurora, Colorado massacre and the the 2001 shooting outside Tucson, Arizona – both involving young, white males – likely mind-controlled – we look to learn more about the shooter and his motivations for attacking this Sikh temple. Right now they are calling the Sikh temple massacre an act of  ”domestic terrorism.”

Here is Loren Coleman at Twilight Language‘s take on the Sikh temple shooting as well as a Dark Knight/Sikh sync-link.

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