According to UK watchers, the claims of high turnout in the voting to decide whether Khalistan should be carved out of Punjab is being projected by Pakistani media, according to the New Delhi-based Hindustan Times newspaper.

According to reports, the majority of the voters were backed by Pakistan. UK watchers said less than 2000 people turned up for the referendum voting.

The Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which organised the referendum, failed to get even 100-150 voters in the first half and various outfits associated with the Khalistan movement - like Federation of Sikh organization (FSO) and World Sikh Parliament (WSP) - pressed their workers to come and vote, said UK watchers.

SFJ is a banned organisation in India.

In the early 1980s, the Khalistan separatist movement for a separate Sikh state carved out of Punjab and other parts of Northern India led to a bloody chapter with countless deaths in the terror activities and led to the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

The radicalized Sikh groups were led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and  in the 1980-90s it peaked with massacres of civilians.  The movement resulted in nearly 22,000 deaths of Sikhs and Hindus alike, including approximately 12,000 civilians.

Mostly backed by groups operating from abroad, in 1985 the Khalistani separatists based in Canada blew up the Air India flight enroute from Toronto to New Delhi, killing all 329 people on board.

In June 1984, Indira Gandhi ordered Operation Blue Star  by the Indian Army to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib in the Golden Temple Complex, resulting in bloodbath and the killing of Bhindranwale. A few months later Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards.