An angry Nihang Sikh brandishes his weapon during the fracas that broke out after the arrest of Bhindranwale at Mehta Chowk last month
No one is sure of the exact moment when the shouldering saga of the Sikhs took a turn for the worse, but for over a month now the battle being waged in Punjab has been both bloody and bitter. Daily doses of murder and assault, processions of waving kirpans and exploding bombs topped by a terrifying hijack to Pakistan have filled newspaper headlines and television screens, but not many viewers, including many Sikhs themselves, know why. Is it the murder of an elderly Hindu newspaper editor outside Ludhiana in early September that has triggered off the waves of violence? Or is it the arrest of a minor religious leader implicated in the murder that has unleashed the fury of a zealous minority? Is the rage in Punjab a communal confrontation sparked off by Hindu-Sikh rivalry, or is it a manifestation or an extremist movement demanding a separate nation called Khalistan? Or is it yet another chapter in the national register of embittered Centre-state relations, with local political parties feuding for power?
