Amritsar, Punjab (June 09, 2014): Terming the internecine clash at Akal Takht as sacrilege, the Dal Khalsa said it had pained and shamed all the Sikhs and dampens the spirit of the youth, who otherwise was energetic while observing the 30th anniversary of army attack.

Party’s senior leaders Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib and Kanwar Pal Singh said it looks the community has not learned any lessons from the past mistakes. “Ironically, we had made ourselves laughing stock in the eyes of the world community”. They said the clash was a result of simmering discontent between two political adversaries having divergent ideology.

Taking a dig at SGPC for holding the inquiry, they said there’s no need for any probe as hundreds of Sikhs have seen with their naked eyes what happened over there on the day. Moreover, inquiry by SGPC will have no relevance and credibility, as it would be preposterous to expect genuine and transparent probe from the SGPC- whose role itself is under scanner. If at all there was any need, then it should be independent of the SGPC and secondly it should be headed by Justice (retd) Kuldeep Singh.

They contest the theory of some unnamed mischievous person engineering the clash. “Do we want to portray that Sikhs were naive and foolish that any unknown person can trigger clash between them”, they questioned.

The internecine fight within the Sikhs and especially between Mann group and Badal led SGPC was not new. They said, it occurred thrice in the past and every time the basic reason remained the same with a slight difference, and added that this time it was because SGPC didn’t provided mike to Simranjit Singh Mann to address the audience.

They said the SGPC has set wrong precedent by filing the FIR against the youth. Slamming both the sides, they said the damage has been done which could not be undone.

They said both the warring factions were responsible for the sacrilege at Akal Takht, and it’s ironic that both were trying to pass the buck. What happened at Akal Takht has disheartened the silent supporters of the Sikh cause, they observed. They said the damage caused due to ruckus at sacred place that too on 30th anniversary of army attack will have lasting impact on minds of devout Sikhs.

They said senior leadership of both the sides left the venue sensing the brewing trouble. “They left the venue once the atmosphere was surcharged and in their absence the hell broke out, which was their biggest fault”.

They said both the sides should take moral responsibility for violating the maryada and tender apology to the Khalsa Panth. “To stop re-occurrence of such disgraceful incidents, the community will have to evolve a mechanism otherwise no power in the world will ever support Sikhs in their efforts to gain justice and freedom”.