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Summary of Question:	Khalistan
Category:	General Q's from Non-Sikhs
Date Posted:	Wednesday, 10/26/2005 4:17 PM MDT

How many Sikhs living in Punjab support the Khalistan movement?

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According to Cynthia Mahmoud's excellent book "Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants", actualy support for Khalistan was never a high percentage of the population in Punjab. Today support for Khalistan is a fringe movement at best. The dream of Khalistan is mostly supported by individuals in other countries such as England, U.S.A and Canada.

Part of the reason for the low numbers of Khalistanis is of course due to the massive deaths caused by the Indian police force and military targetting those who had supposed ties to Khalistan. By Amnesty International's conservative estimates, more than 250,000 Sikh Indian citizens were murdered without trial in India during the 1980's and early 1990's.