Keep ‘Bandi Chhor Divas’ a low-key affair: Takht

Akal Takht has directed the Sikh community to commemorate the ‘Bandi Chhor Divas’ in a subdued manner as the occasion coincides with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots on November 1.

Even fireworks’ display may be avoided at the Golden Temple complex this year.

Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh said barring the Golden Temple and Akal Takht, no electrical lighting should be done at gurdwaras and homes on the occasion. “The ‘Sikh Genocide’ will witness its 40th anniversary on November 1. The Sikhs were brutally massacred under the auspices of the then Congress government in 1984 in around 110 cities of different states, including Delhi,” he said.

Keeping in view that justice was still not delivered and the victims families’ still wailing, he said the Sikh community all over the globe could only light up ‘diyas’ at gurdwaras and their houses to mark the occasion emblematically, yet refrain from using lights or any kind of electrical decorations. “This time, only the Golden Temple and Akal Takht will be lightened up on the occasion of ‘Bandi Chhor Divas’ symbolically,” he said.