Sikh group claims Twitter blocked its website head of 1984 violence anniversary

NEW YORK: Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), an advocacy group, has claimed that social media giant Twitter has reportedly blocked phrase www.1984SikhGenocide.org from the micro-blogging website.

The group which disseminates information regarding the alleged genocide of Sikhs that took place in India between 1984 to 1997 with particular emphasis on November 1984 riots.

Anti-Sikh violence erupted in India after the Operation Blue Star was launched at the Golden Temple in Amritsar ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to remove  a Sikh leader from the temple.

On October 21, SFJ had launched an international campaign urging the governments of Canada, USA, UK and Australia to commemorate November 1 as Sikh Genocide Remembrance Day.

“The organisation has sent more than 25000 emails so far through the www.1984SikhGenocide.org before the disabling of the tweets containing the campaign website address. Earlier personal Twitter account of SFJ’s legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had also been disabled,” said the group.

The website allowed people from US, Canada, UK, Australia to send a pre-drafted email message to their congressmen, Senators or Member Parliaments about the issue.

The email from the residents of Indian state of Punjab gets delivered to the UN Secretary General and other high level UN officials including special adviser on the prevention of genocide.

The campaign email to western governments and UN states that “millions of Sikhs around the world commemorate November as a month when Sikh people were subjected to genocidal attacks in India”.

Therefore, November 1 should be proclaimed as “Sikh Genocide Remembrance Day”  as demand by the Sikh community which is widely being honored by the communities around the world,