Posts Tagged ‘Sikh’

What India Needs Is Stricter Sword Control Laws…

Sunday, June 8th, 2014

I missed this earlier, but violent swordfights broke out at the Sikh Golden Temple in Punjab, India:

The fights were evidently between rival Sikh factions on who would speak first at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of Operation Blue Star, when the Indian government stormed the temple and killed Sikh separatist followers of Jarnail Singh Bhinderanwale.

If the video is any indication, either the combatants weren’t really trying to hurt anyone, or most Sikhs today treat their kirpan as a purely ornamental weapon, as that is some seriously incompetent and ineffective swordplay…

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Posted in Guns, video | No Comments »

Governor of Punjab Assasinated for Opposing Blasphemy Laws

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

This is not good news. Imagine if the governor of California or Texas were assassinated in broad daylight by his own bodyguard. Well, that’s what happened to Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in Pakistan. Of course, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was also assassinated, and Indian PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards, in large measure due to policies regarding Sikhs in the Indian portion of Punjab.

As for who is responsible, who knows? It could be a freelance jihadist, it could be al Quada, it could be Taliban, or it could be some of the Islamist elements of the Pakistani ISI. (Given the circumstances, I’m assuming it wasn’t Kashmiri nationalists, though stranger things have happened.) In any case, it’s bad news for a nuclear-armed nation that always seems to be inching ever closer to become a failed state.

I don’t have any particular insight into Pakistani, so I direct you to the odd piece by the ever-interesting Christopher Hitchens, which are long on insight and short on hope. Sometimes, as in the Middle East, there are simply no good options.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | 1 Comment »