PORVORIM: Allaying fears regarding revival of Khalistani movement in Punjab, Former DGP of Punjab and son of soil, Julio Ribeiro has said that people don't want Khalistan and cautioned Government of India against planning any covert action against Khalistani supporters in Canada and elsewhere.
“We don’t know whether the Khalistan issue is getting revived in Punjab or not. If the people of Punjab join it, then it will become a big problem. At the moment, people of Punjab are not interested in Khalistan,” Ribeiro said.
He was speaking to O Heraldo on the sidelines of a conversation with writer Vivek Menezes, at the launch of his latest book, Hope for Sanity, a collection of his selected writings from 2002 to 2021.
The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno‐religious sovereign state in the Punjab region. This separatist movement led to insurgency in Punjab from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, killing over 8,000 people, including police personnel.
There has been a rising concern about a revival of the Khalistan movement in Punjab due to the rise of extremist ideology in recent times, which has been getting support from Sikh separatists living in Canada.
“As of now, it is only a handful of Sikhs living abroad who are supporting Khalistan. If the Sikhs in Punjab join it, it would become very difficult to contain the problem. It will be like what we had to fight for 10 years. The State and central government should ensure this does not happen,” the veteran police officer said, who led operations against militants in Punjab in the ‘80s.