Orange flower in hand of Sikh woman waiting to lay them in tribute to dead in 1984 Indian massacres. London, UK. 13/06/2010
Sikhs Never Forget 1984 More than 5000 Sikhs marched from Hyde Park to a Trafalgar Square rally marking 26 years since the Indian Army attacked their most sacred shrine the Golden Temple at Amritsar in June 1984, killing thousands. They called for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan. London, UK. 13/06/2010 The march was an entirely peaceful event, and relatively few of those taking part carried placards or wore t-shirts with political slogans, although there were a few banners. At last year's events police had raised objections to a number of placards and t-shirts with symbols of the proscribed organisation, Babbar Khalsa International, militant Sikhs regarded by the UK government as a terrorist group, as well as some with graphic images of massacre victims and some naming prominent India politicians with a graphic image of an anonymous head in a gun-sight. This year virtually nothing of this kind was visible, with most taking part wearing normal Sikh dress. The main banner at the front of the march simply called for 'Remembrance, Justice & Freedom.' A few had flags with a Sikh emblam saying 'Khalistan Zindabad' - Long Live Khalistan. As usual the march was led by two men carrying Sikh standards, and behind them the five baptised Sikhs (Panj Piyare) dressed in orange, with swords held up, walking barefoot, but other than this there was less of theatre than on previous occasions, with only a relatively small number of people scattered among the crowd carrying black flags and a single black coffin being carried near the end of the march, rather than a large group as before. At Trafalgar Square there were a few black coffins and some large slabs of flower arranging foam spelling out '1984'. Several thousand flowers were distributed among the audience who then lined up to plant these over around an hour while the speeches were continuing and form a floral tribute to those who died in the massacres.
Size: 2827px × 4256px
Location: Trafalgar Square, London, England, UK
Photo credit: © Peter Marshall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1984, amritsar, commemoration, federation, floral, flowers, freedom, golden, independence, india, justice, kaur, khalistan, khalsa, london, march, massacre, massacres, punjab, rally, remembrance, sikh, sikhism, sikhs, singh, state, temple, tribute
