BRESCIA, ITALY: A record-breaking number of Sikhs turned up for the Khalistan Referendum voting campaign for the creation of an independent Khalistan state and secession of Punjab from India, geo. tv reported on Sunday.
According to various estimates – including the local intelligence assessment – more than 40,000 Sikh men and women answered calls by the pro-Khalistan advocacy group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) to cast their votes for the non-binding voting process, which has captured the imaginations of the group since its start in the October of last year from London, the report said.
At the start of the voting process in London at the Queen Elizabeth Centre, around 30,000 Sikhs had attended the referendum voting but the turnout in the Italian city’s Brixia Forum defied the expectations of the organisers who had estimated the turnout figure to be close to London.
A large queue started forming at 8am to cast vote at 9am but a floodgate opened at around 11am as the queue stretched to nearly half a kilometre, right from inside the voting complex to zigzag queues stretching past the vast car parking area.
Most of those who attended the Brixia Forum Centre were Sikh youth and a significant number included women and families. Sikhs for Justice had announced ahead of the referendum that it had chosen the city of Brixia because Italy had over 200,000 Sikhs living in the county with a majority in Brescia. Most of the Sikhs are relatively young economic migrants who have come from India and have first-hand experience of living under Indian rule.
It looked like a festival of yellow colour as most of the attendees carried yellow flags of Khalistan and banners of Khalistan Referendum. They danced to the beat of drums and Punjabi music as well as pro-Khalistan slogans while waiting in the queues to get in.
Over 300 volunteers inside and outside the hall served water, tea and food to the participants. Inside the hall, over a dozen independent observers, including two UK professors with expertise in referendums, oversaw the voting process. By midday, it was jam-packed both inside and outside the hall as convoys of Sikhs arrived to cast their votes.
