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| Shri Akal Takhat damaged during Operation Bluestar, June 1984 |
Cynthia Kepply Mahmood, describing the scale of the attack, writes:
"When it [the Indian army] attacked the Golden Temple complex at Amritsar in 1984, containing the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, the ostensible aim was to rid the sacred buildings of the militants who had taken up shelter inside. But the level force used in the attack was utterly incommensurate with this limited and eminently attainable aim. Seventy thousand troops, in conjunction with the use of tanks and chemical gas, killed not only the few dozen militants who didn’t manage to escape the battleground but also hundreds (possibly thousands) of innocent pilgrims, the day of the attack being a Sikh holy day. The Akal Takht, the seat of temporal authority for the Sikhs, was reduced to rubble and the Sikh Reference Library, an irreplaceable collection of books, manuscripts, and artifacts bearing on all aspects of Sikh history, burned to ground. Thirty-seven other shrines were attacked across Punjab on the same day. The only possible reason for this appalling level of state force against its own citizens must be that the attempt was not merely to “flush out,” as they say, a handful of militants, but to destroy the fulcrum of a possible mass resistance against the state."
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| Akal Takhat during bombardment |
The most disturbing aspect of the operation was the targeting of civilians by the Indian army. Contrary to the army Lt. General K. Sundarji’s statement—“We went inside [the Darbar Sahib] with humility in our hearts and prayers on our lips”—for the invading troops “every Sikh inside was a militant.” Mark Tully, in his famous account of the invasion, writes: “Karnail Kaur, a young mother of three children…said, ‘When people begged for water some jawans [soldiers] told them to drink the mixture of blood and urine on the ground.’” Tully records an eye-witness account by Bhan Singh, the then SGPC Secretary:
"I saw about thirty-five or thirty-six Sikhs lined up with their hands raised above their heads. And the major was about to order them to be shot. When I asked him for medical help, he got into rage, tore my turban off my head, and ordered his men to shoot me. I turned back and fled…Sardar Karnail Singh Nag, who had followed me, also narrated what he had seen, as well as the killing of thirty-five to thirty-six young Sikhs by cannon fire. All of them were villagers."
C.K.C. Reddy, while writing on the army action notes:
"The whole of Punjab and especially the Golden Temple Complex, was turned into a murderous mouse trap from where people could neither escape nor could they seek succor of any kind...The bodies of the victims of military operation in Punjab were unceremoniously destroyed without any attempt to identify them and hand them over to their relatives...The most disturbing thing about the entire operation was that a whole mass of men, women, and children were ordered to be killed merely on the suspicion that some terrorists were operating from the Golden Temple and other Gurdwaras. There had been no judicial verdict of guilt against definite individuals who had been taking shelter in the Golden Temple."
The Indian army’s invasion of the Golden Temple, which is remembered as a ghalughara (holocaust) by Sikhs, claimed as many as “7,000 to 8,000” lives according to some eyewitness accounts.[12] While there is ample evidence to show that Bhindranwale was fighting for the demands articulated in the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and not for the separate state of Khalistan, the Indian army’s invasion was not seen by the Sikhs as “a security operation but a clash between two nations, the first ‘war for Khalistan’”.
As Joyce Pettigrew puts it:"The sacrifice of Bhindranwale’s life and that of his followers drew attention to the fact that Sikhs live by a model of society opposed to that for which India stood. They were slaughtered in defence of their conception of what society should be." Eyewitnesses say that the army deployed tanks, armed personnel carriers, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns and helicopters. Many of the buildings surrounding the Temple were reduced to rubble. The damage inside of the temple complex was severe. The Harmandir Sahib [the sanctum sanctorum where the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, is kept during the day] received many bullet holes. The book itself was hit by a bullet.
The militants (Kharakus) in the temple appeared to be armed with machine guns, anti-tank missiles and rocket launchers and resisted the army's attempts to dislodge them from the shrine. The militants also appeared to have planned for a long occupation of the shrine having arranged for water from wells within the temple compound, and had stocked food provisions that would have lasted months. Thus it is a difficult point as to whether the Army could have waited out the militants, cut off electricity, water etc in order to ensure a peaceful non-violent end without the loss of life and desecration of the temple; this was the siege approach taken by Rajiv Gandhi five years later, in Operation Black Thunder.
The fighting between the militants and the Indian military continued throughout the night. Major General Brar, made the decision to bring in tanks to support the military in hopes of finishing the operation before dawn. After two days of heavy fighting with the assistance of superior military equipment the Indian military was able to bring most of the Harmandir Sahib complex under its control.
Despite the government's claims that only extremists were killed other reports claim that many innocent visitors, pilgrims and priests were killed in the cross-fire. Water, electricity and telephone links to the Harimandir Sahib were cut off.On June 18, 1984 Christian Science Monitor reported: -" For five days the Punjab has been cut off from the rest of the world. All telephone and telex links are cut. No foreigners are permitted entry and on Tuesday, all Indian journalists were expelled. There are no newspapers, no trains, no buses- not even a bullock cart can move."
The success in emptying and depoliticising the temple was marred by the damage to the temple building and the death of civilian worshipers caught in the fire.Operation Blue Star led to an estrangement between the Indian Central government and large portions of the Sikh community. It was considered by many Sikhs as a great insult because of the use of force at their holy place, on one of the most holiest of days. The later assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards was said to be in response to desecrating the temple. The assassination triggered Anti-Sikh riots broke out in North India killing as many as 4000; and then militancy in Punjab lasted for more than a decade in which many thousands more, civilians, terrorists and security personnel, were killed.
Later on numerous Kar Sevaks volunteered to rebuild the Harmandir Sahib, turning down an offer to do so by the government.Operation Bluestar was followed by Operation Woodrose, in which the Indian government expanded their operations in Punjab.
Operation Bluestar is regarded by some military observers in India and the international community as a military embarrassment, poorly conducted and managed. Many of the leaders of the military action were either assassinated or are as in the case of Major General Brar, in hiding for fear of being assassinated. |
| Devotees' dead bodies lying |
"Operation Bluestar" and "Ghallughara". Two different terms for the same episode - the Army action on the Golden Temple in June 1984. Two different meanings give to the same unprecedented event. "Operation Bluestar" in the Government's term, connoting a necessary military operation to flush out terrorists and recover arms from the Golden Temple, the implication being that it was an unavoidable cleansing act of purification. Where as "Ghallughara" is how the Sikhs of Punjab remember the episode, connoting aggression, massacre and religious persecution. The unmistakable allusion is to the killing in Punjab of tens of thousands of Sikhs by the Afgan raider, Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1762, after which the word "Ghallughara" was coined to become an integral part of the Punjabi folklore.
The contrast between "Operation Bluestar" and "Ghallughara" as two different perceptions of the same reality is symptomatic of the wide gap between the official version and the people's recollections of what really happened at the Golden Temple when the army attacked it in June 1984. Listening to the gripping eye-witness accounts of those who were inside Golden Temple at that time, we felt the need to tell the truth, the as-yet untold story and in the process to correct the Government's version as put out by the Army, the Press, the Radio, the T.V. and the White Paper.1. Devinder Singh Duggal - In charge of the Sikh Reference Library located inside the Golden Temple complex. Duggal is an acknowledged authority on Sikh history. He used to reside in a house adjacent to the Sikh Reference Library, was present there between May 28 and June 6, 1984 and hence (in his own words) "an eye-witness to some of the atrociities committed by the Army during its attack on the Golden Temple". About fiftyish, Duggal now lives with his lecturer-wife in Jallandhar, where we interviewd him. His eyes become moist and his voice quivered as he described the assault on the Golden Temple.
2. Bhan Singh- Secretary of the S.G.P.C., short, slim, in his mid fifties, Bhan Singh is a man of few words. He was present in the Golden Temple Complex during the Army attack and was arrested at dawn on June 6 along with Longowal and Tohra from the Guru Nanak Nivas which now houses the SGPC Office, where we met and talked to him. His account begins from June 3, 1984.
3. Giani Puran Singh - one of the priests at Harmandir Sahib.4. Girl Student - Grand-daughter of SGPC member, she preferred to remain anonymous. Aged about 20 years, she goes to college at Amritsar. She went to the Golden Temple on May 29, 1984, with her grand-parents and an aunt, to fulfill a vow, and was there until June 6. We met her in Amritsar in the house of a widowed victim of the November 1984 Delhi violence.
5. A.I.S.S.F. Member - about 25-years old, he would not give his name, son of a police officer, he was visiting the Golden Temple in June 1984 for the Gurupurab and was there from June 1. He was arrested by the Army on June 6 but released in October. He was rearrested soon after and had been again released a little before we met him. Remarkably calm and soft spoken, he said that there were about 100 fighters with Bhindranwale inside the Temple Complex and less than 100 arms, mostly, 303 guns of the II World War. Extremely handsome, he is a member of the All India Sikh Students Federation.
6. Prithipal Singh - A young (24 years) Sevadar at the Akal Rest House, inside the Guru Ram Das Serai, Golden Temple complex, where mostly distinguished guests stayed. He was on duty throughout the period of the Army Operation. He narrated how he had a hair-breadth escape, even after being lined up before the firing squad on June 6, after he had been arrested, stripped naked and his hands had been tied behind his back with his turban. He showed us the bullet-ridden walls of the Akal Rest House, where we spoke to him.7. Joginder Singh - and empoyee of the S.G.P.C. whom we met at the Golden Temple.
8. Surinder Singh Ragi "Patnasahib Wala" - Head Ragi (singer) at the Harmandir Sahib, we met the young man (about 35 years) outside the Information Office of the Golden Temple, He was in the Kesari (Sochre) roles of a priest. He was on duty at the Harmandir Sahib during the Army action. He is an extremely popular singer of 'Shabads' from the Gurbani and his tapes are on great demand. He spoke to us with great conviction. "The Guru taught us to resist atyachar (represssion), not to do atyachar".9. Baldev Kaur - an Amritdhari woman in her mid-thirties, she had come to the Golden Temple on June 2, 1984 for the Gurupurab with her husband (Puran Singh who is now in Kapurthala Jail) and three children from her village Khanowal in Kapurthala district. She was so calm and fearless when she described her tribulations. She is facing severe economic hardships, cultivating only two acres of land, having no regualr source of income since her husband's arrest more that 9 months back.
10. Harchan Singh Ragi - one of the Hazuri Ragis who sings at the Harmandir Sahib, he is in his late fifties. With serene eyes and flowing white beard, he has an endearing touch. He was on duty at the Harmandir Sahib singing 'kirtans' when the Army shelled it very early morning on June 4. Born into a Hindu Brahmin family, he was orphaned at the time of partition and then adoped and brought up by Amrik Singh, the blind Head Ragi of the Golden Temple who was killed inside the Harmandir Sahib on the morning of June 5. We met him at the Information Office of the Golden Temple, and he lives just above it. Raminderpal Singh - an innocent boy - one of his sons, is detained at Jodhpur Jail as a 'terrorist'.
Some of the details of the life in Amritsar at the time of the Army action, were provided to us by the relatives of a few of those who were captured from the Golden Temple after the army operation, as 'terrorists' accused of 'waging war against the State' and who are now being tried under the Special Courts (Terrorists) Act at Jodhpur Jail. It is the Jodhpur detenues who are eye-witnesses to the Army operations in Amritsar in June 1984, not the relatives we met. But some of their evidence was passed on to their relatives in the course of brief meeting in jail from time to time. We met the relatives of:(a) Kanwaljit Singh - A 20-year-old student of Khalsa College (evening) Delhi, whose father (Satnam Singh) runs a provision store at Lawrence Road, Delhi. Kanwaljit Singh visted the Temple with his friend on June 2, wanted to return to Delhi the same afernoon, but found that the last train had left Amritsar. And so he was forced to stay at the Guru Ram Das Serai inside the Golden Temple Complex. After Army action, he was arrested by the Army from the Serai and later chargesheeted with 378 others as 'terrorists' and detained under the N.S.A. We spoke to his youger brother, Inder Mohan Singh, at Delhi.
(b) Jasbir Singh and Randhir Singh - Two brothers who went to Golden Temple, separtely, on June 3 to pay their respects. As Jasbir Singh was coming out after fulfilling his vow on June 3 at about 1:30 p.m. on the side of the Chowk Ghan ta Ghar, he was detained along with other youths by the C.R.P. The C.R.P. made them take off their shirts, tied their hands behind them and made them sit on the hot road outside the Information Office. Randhir Singh was staying in a room in Guru Ram Das Serai, belonging to their uncle (a member of the SGPC) from where he was arrested on June 5. Randhir was injured by bullets on his leg. We spoke to their father, Harbans Singh Ghumman, about 55 years a farmer and former MLA belonging to village Ghummankala , district Gurdaspur.
June 1, 1984 - Pieceing together the evidence of various eye-witness and also second-hand socurces, such as Kirpal Singh, President of the Khalsa Dewan, Amritsar and S.S. Bhagowalia, advocate at Gurdaspur and Vice-president for the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (Punjab), the following picture emerges as to what happened at Golden Temple from June 1, 1984. It is really amazing how, except for some minor details, the accounts of different persons interviewed separately tally so closely with regard to the date, the time and the description of incident June 1, 1984. The AISSF Member, Duggal, the girl student, Sevadar Prithipal Singh and Baldev Kaur all said the the Golden Temple was fired at by security forces from the outside for the first time on June 1 itself, not June 5 as claimed by the White Paper. According to the AISSF member, "At 14.40 in the afternoon of June 1, suddenly the CRP without provocation started firing, aiming at the people inside the Parikarmas. There was no firing, from inside the Golden Temple. The firing by the C.R.P. was on the Harmandir Sahib and the Manjih Sahib. The firing continued till about 8 p.m." Sevadar Prithipal Singh added that the shooting which started from outside, was not preceded by any warning.Devinder Singh Duggal's account is extremely detailed and lucid. "By the end of May, it was widely known that the Army is going to attack the Golden Temple, and on that account there was tremendous tension in the entire city and its surrounding ar eas. The worst fears of the people came to the surface when on 1st June, the security forces which had beseiged the Golden Temple for months together and had made strong fortification on the multi-storey buildings all around it, suddenly started firing in side the Golden Temple. The firing sarted at 12.30 p.m. and continued for a full 7 hours. What was worse was that Harmandir Sahib was made the main target of this firing. I took shelter along with my staff behind the steel almirahs of the Library, one of the bullets pierced through three almirahs and landed on the fourth and we had a narrow escape."
Duggal continues - "Not a single shot was fired from inside the complex. When I asked some of the boys as to why they did not answere the firing, they replied that they were under strict orders of the Sant not to fire a single shot unless and unti ll the security forces or the Army entered the holy Golden Temple. In the evening, when I heard in the news bulletin that there was unprovoked firing from inside the Temple, but that the security forces showed extreme restrain and did not fire a single sh ot, I was surprised at this naked lie. The very fact that as many as eight persons, includeing a woman and a child had been killed inside the Golden Temple complex and there were as many as 34 big bullet wounds on all sides of the Harmandir Sahib complete ly belied the Government's version. I asked Bhan Singh, Secretary, S.G.P.C., to do something to refute this falsehood. He said that nothing could be done because all links with the outside world had been snapped."According to the girl student, curfew was clamped soon after the firing started. She confirmed the killings - "Authorities had said none had died, but I dressed the wounds of 3 men who died later in front me in Guru Nanak Nivas." That the cur few was lifted soon after the firing stopped is indicated by the AISSF member, who said, "after the firing stopped, at about 8.30 p.m., a group of people (Jatha) courted arrest."
There is no doubt then that security forces (C.R.P.) fired on the Harmander Sahib on June 1 itself and the news over the A.I.R. that there was unprovoked firing from inside was a blatant lie. However, most official versions maintain a meaningful silenc e about the happenings of June 1. For them, as for example, with the Government's White Paper, the story begins on June 2 with the Government of India deciding to call in the Army in aid of civil authority in Punjab, with the object of "checking and controlling extermist, terrorist and communal vioulence in Punjab, providing security to the people and restore normalcy." How much security the Army succeeded in providing to the people and how much normalcy, they were able to restore, is however, a nother matter.June 2, 1984 - Duggal was relieved when "fortunately, on 2nd June a team of five reporters including Mark Tully of B.B.C. came there (Golden Temple) and were told the truth . They were taken around the Golden Temple and shown 34 big wounds caused by the bullets on all sides of the Harmandir Sahib, some of them as big as almost 3" in diameter."
"The 2nd June passed off peacefully," according to Duggal, because there was no firing and no curfew, while Baldev Kaur said it was 'quiet'. A large number of Sikhs came to the Golden Temple from the surrounding areas along with their familie s as the next day, June 3, was Guru Parb or the martyrdom day of Shri Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth holy Guru of the Sikhs.The peace and quiet was only on the surface, because active preparations were afoot to break the peace. Kanwaljit Singh and his friend Manjit Singh from Delhi visited Golden Temple on the morning of June 2 and found that there there was no restriction for pilgrims to enter Amritsar or even the Temple. But the exit doors out ot Amritsar were being closed. After visiting the Temple, when Kanwaljit went at noon to the Amritsar Railway Station to catch a train for Delhi, they were told that the last train had already left and that the Flying Mail in the evening would not be leaving. In fact they were told all outgoing trains had been cancelled. So Kanwaljit and Manjit were forced to return to the Golden Temple and put up in the Guru Ram Das Serai for the n ight. Thus was Kanwaljit to miss his interveiw at Delhi with the Institute of Bank Management on June 3 morning and his examination with the State Bank of India the same afternoon.
The AISSF young man said that the C.R.P., outside the Golden Temple was replaced by Army on the night of June 2. Although there was no formal curfew, and all visitors entering the Temple were allowed to come in without any ado, all those who left the G olden Temple on the night of June 2 were being taken into custody. "I did not therefore leave the Golden Temple complex", said the A.I.S.S.F. member revealing his caution.June 3, 1984 - According to the AISSF member, "Guru Parb was on June 3. About 10,000 people had come from outside including many women and 4000 of them were young people. Those who were inside were not allowd to go out after 10 p.m. on June 3. The Jathas which had come mainly from Sangrur were not allowed to court arrest."
Bhan Singh confirms: "June 3 being Guru Parb, thousands of pilgrims had come. But suddenly there was a curfew, so the pilgrims and the 1300 Akali workers came to participate in the Dharam Yudh Morcha and to court arrest, could not leave. The Akali Jathas consisted of about 200 ladies, 18 children and about 1100 men and all of them along with the thousands of pilgrims were forced to stay back inside the Temple complex. Most were living in Guru Ram Das Serai, some at Teja Singh Samundri Hall."The girl student remembers, "On June 3, at 6 o'clock in the evening we came to know that Punjab had been sealed for 48 hours and that even cycles would not be allowed on the streets."
Kanwaljit Singh sent a telegram home to Delhi at 8.05 p.m. on June 3 from the Golden Temple Post Office "Coming after curfew". It means that the curfew was 'reimposed' (Duggal's word) between 8.05 p.m. and 10 p.m.No one inside the Golden Temple had yet realised the sinister plan of the authoritites. Punjab had been sealed. Thousands of pilgrims and hundreds of Akali workers had been allowed to collect inside the Temple complex. They had been given no inkling or warning either of the sudden curfew or of the imminent Army attack. It was to be a Black Hole-type of tragedy, not out of forgetfulness but out of deliberate planning and design.
June 4, 1984 - Duggal's recollection are vived, almost photographic. "At abut 4 a.m. in the early hours of the morning of June 4, the regular Army attack on the temple started with a 25-pounder which fell in the ramparts of the Deori to the left o f Akal Takht Sahib with such a thunder that for a few moments I thought that the whole complex had collapsed. I along with my wife were then sitting in the verandah of my house adjacent to the Sikh Reference Library. Recovering from the initial shock, we moved into the room and took shelter in one of its corners. Therafter, every second the ferocity of firing increased and it continued unabated till the evening of the 6th June.As we were on the first floor, and our quarter was open on all sides our position was very vulnerable. The bullets hit our quarters on all sides and some of them pierced through the doors and landed inside the room. To add to our miseries the power and water supplies had been cut. Through a slit in the shutter of a window we saw a large number of dead bodies in the Parikrama of the Golden Temple. They included women and children. We could not leave our room. Coming out in the open would have exposed us to sure death."
Baldev Kaur's account of how the Army attack began is similar - "Very early on June 4, while it was dark, there was cannon fire from outside the Golden Temple without any warning. Shots were fired from all sides."Bhan Singh is emphatic that no warning was given, no public announcement was made by the Army before the shelling of the Golden Temple started on June 4 - "had the army given a warning at least those pilgrims who had come for the Guru Parb could g o out and then those person who were simply here to participate in the Dharam Yudh Morcha could go out. But no warning was given to the people. The firing was started from all around the complex with vengeance, as if they were attacking on alien, enemy co untry."
According to the girl student the shelling started at about 20 minutes past 4 o'clock on June 4 dawn and continued without interruption upto 2 o'clock in the afternoon of that day (June 4), and evening of June 5.Her account is extemely graphic - On June 4 at about 3:30 a.m. we were inside the Harmandir Sahib reciting our prayers. Suddenly, thew was a black-out in the whole of the Goldne Temple complex. The devotees continued to be immersed in worship. A about 20 minutes past 4 o'clock there was a very loud explosion. We felt that the whole of the Golden Temple complex was shaking. I was alone on the balcony overlooking the lake or sarovar. Suddenly something roundish fell in front of me. I was curious. So I ge ntly touched it and pushed it into the water. As it fell, there was a big noise and then the water rose and splashed into the Harmandir Sahib. I started reeling, once tilting on one side and again on the other. Someone pulled me inside. The explosions con tinued. We then realised that the Army's attack on the Golden Temple had begun." In a flash she described her companions - "Inside the Harmandir Sahib there were about 50 to 60 persons - soem granthis (priests), ragis (singers), sevadars (employ ees), the rest of them yatris (pilgrims or visitors) like me and my family. I did not see any armed terrorist."
The Army fired from all sides and did not spare any target in the Temple complex which seemed to shelter people. According to Prithipal Singh, the Sevadar on duty at Akal Rest House, deep inside the Guru Ram Das Serai, the Akal Rest House was shelled f rom the side of Gali Bagh Wali (to the left of the main entrance from the side on chowk Ghanta Ghar) at 5 a.m. on June 4. The bullet marks on the walls, the doors and windows of the side rooms of the Akal Rest House bore silent testimony to the Sevadars s tory, as we listened to him in May, 1985, almost one year after the shooting.The Harmandir Sahib was not spared by the Army on June 4, just as it had not been by the C.R.P. on June 1. According to the girl student, bulletts hissed past her and her grandmother and aunt when they crawled across the bridge on their stomachs in the ir bid to escape from Harmandir Sahib. She managed to pick up a portion of a shell which had exploded on the bridge near Harmandir Shaib - it was marked 84 mm., and it had two colours, yellow on the upper part and blue on the lower part.
Baldev Kaur's account suggests that there was no immediate counter-fire from inside the Golden Temple complex. The A.I.S.S.F. member said that "there was some stray firing from inside the Golden Temple before the Army's entry into the complex" ;. The girl student provides a comparative picture of the magnitude and intensity of firing from outside the Temple and from inside. "The firing that took place from inside the Golden Temple was negligible. On June 1, there was absolutely no firing f rom inside. Wheras on June 4, the ratio what something like this - if a thousand rounds were being fired by the Army from outside, then about one or one and a half rounds were fired in reply by the armed militants from inside the Temple complex."Meanwhile, according to Duggal, "the helicopter hovered above and continued to fire from above. Some of these helicopters also guided the firing squads of the Army by making circle of light around the targets. Immediately after these circles, the cannon bell would land on the target causing havoc. We saw a large number of boys blown to pieces."
According to Bhan Singh, "they (the Army) treated the inmates of the Complex as enemies and whenever there was any person wounded on account of the firing, no Red Cross people were allowed to enter, rather the Red Cross personnel had been detained beyond the Jallianwallah Bagh," - more that a kilometre away from the main entrance to the Golden Temple from the Chowk Ghanta Ghar side. In accordance with the U.N. Charter of Human Rights, the Red Cross is permitted to go in aid of the wounded rig ht inside the enemy territory, but in Amritsar in June 1984 the Red Cross was not allowed to enter the Golden Temple - a respected and hallowed part of our country- in aid of Indians under attack from the Indian army. It only means that the attack was so brutal and the battle scene so grisly, that there was much to hide from the public scrutiny, even if it be that of a neutral agency called the Red Cross. This also explains perhaps why Press Censorship had already been imposed, the last of the journalists were hounded away and the Press was not allowed inside the Golden Temple upto June 10 when they were taken on a guided tour of the Complex for the first time since the Army Operations began almost a week before.June 5, 1984 - The firing and counter-firing continued. Harcharan Singh Ragi saw his guardian and mentor - the old completely blind Head Ragi of the Golden Temple, Amrik Singh being shot by a bullet and dying inside the Harmandir Sahib at about 6.30 a.m . on June 5.
This was the respect shown by the Indian Army to the Harmandir Sahib! The White Paper issued on July 10, 1984 adopts a holier-than-thou attitude - "Specific Orders were given to troops to use minimum force, to show the utmost reverence to all holy places and to ensure that no desecration or damage was done to the Harmandir Sahib..." (Para 10) and once more "In spite of this (machine-gun fire from Harmandir Sahib on the night of June 5) the troops exercised great restrain and refrained fr om directing any fire at Harmandir Sahib." All this is propaganda. We have recorded the truth - the Harmandir Sahib was fired at by the C.R.P. on June 1 and there wer 34 bullet marks on it which were shown to Mark Tully of the B.B.C. the next day. Wh en the Army attacked the Golden Temple at dawn on June 4, the Harmandir Sahib was the target of destructive shelling and on June 5 two Ragis - one Amrik Singh, blind, 65-year-old - a singer of devotional songs and another Avtar Singh were killed by bullet s right inside the Harmandir Sahib. Perhaps the White Paper was doing an exercise in sarcasm and irony when it stated: "the troops exercised great restraint and refrained from directing any fire at Harmandir Sahib."Meanwhile, the girl student and her companions had managed to come away from the Harmandir Sahib, crawling on their stomaches across the small bridge. They were bundled into a room on the ground floor of the Akal Takht. They kept sitting there, having nothing to eat and no water to drink. To continue, in her own words, "Helicopters were encircling the Temple from above. After the helicopters completed their circle, at about 11:30 a.m. on June 5, the huge water tank inside the Temple complex was fi red at. The tank could not be broken even after the initial 10 shells hit the tank. Then one bomb hit the tank after which it burst and all the water gushed out. The fighters who had taken their positons beneath the tank were killed.
"They continued the firing till the evening of June 5 and then it was about 8.30 p.m. It was completly dark when they entered accompanied by very heavy firing. The blasting was so severe that I thought that I had reached some other world."We were 40-50 persons huddled together in the room, including women and children, even a child of six months. In the next room were the pilgrims who had come on June 3 to celebrate Guru Parb but they had been trapped."
"The upper protion of the Akal Takht had been fired at by the Army and completely destroyed. Pieces of the Guru Granth Sahib were flying in the air and littering the ground. The place seemed to have been transformed into a haunted house.
"Then the tank entered. It had powerful searchlights. I thought the ambulance had come to attend to the dead and injured. But it had turned out the opposite. The tanks went riding past us. From the tanks the announcement came, loud and clear: &quo t;Please come out, God's blessings are with you. We will reach you home absolutely safe and sound," There were some among us who were frantic for some water, they came out in the open. In the morning I saw the dead bodies lying on the Parikrama. This was the worst kind of treachery."The A.I.S.S.F. Members narration of the events of June 5 has a somewhat different emphasis - less personal reflection and more of detached observation. On June 5th at about 8 p.m. the Army entered the Complex through the Ghanta Ghar side under heavy co ver fire. The road was blocked. Nobody was allowed to come out of the Complex. The Army entry was not preceded by any warning of announcement asking the people to surrender. "There was some stray firing from inside the Golden Temple before the Army e ntry into the Complex. But the real resistance began only after the Army entered the Temple. The order from Bhindranwale was to use limited firearms with discretion. There were only about 100 people to fight and there were less that 100 arms consisting mo stly of 303 rifles used in the World War II, 315 guns and a few stenguns. When the army entered, the ammunition was nearly exhausted. "After mid-night, at about 1 a.m. one armoured carrier and 8 tanks came inside the complex. The tanks had powerful s earchlights and they came down the stair-case, and the Army surrounded the langar building." Even 11 months afterwards, we could still see the marks of the tanks on the Parikrama.
Duggal's account is also informative. By the evening of June 5, he and his family had managed to move to the house of the Giani Sahib Singh, the head priest of Golden Temple, which is about 25 yards away from the house he had earlier taken shelter in. In Duggal's words, "The night between the 5th and 6th was terrible. The tanks and armoured carriers had entered the Golden Temple Complex. The firing was such, that its ferocity cannot be described. In the early hours of June 6th, we learnt that the holy Akal Takht had been completely demolished in the firing. As devoted Sikhs, we were extremely shocked. Tears flowed through the eyes of everybody there. All through the night we heard the heart rending cries of the dying persons."Giani Puran Singh, a priest at the Harmandir Sahib also an eye-witness remembers - "At 7.30 p.m. on 5th I went to Sri Akal Takht where I met Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale with who I had a long satisfying talk while shots were ringing outside. Gyani Mohan Singh, whose duty was to conduct REHRAS (Evening Prayer) had not been able to reach Harmandir Sahib, due to the shooting. I then came down from the Akal Takht and joined some "Singhs" in a morcha and enquired of them whether Gyani Mohan Singh had passed that way. As per the tradition the 'Regras' at Akal Takht starts 5 minutes later than at the Harmandir Sahib, but that day Path at the Akali Takht had already started. Upon this I rushed towards Harmandir Sahib amidst gunfire, stopping for a breather at the Darshani Deori. On reaching I started the recitation. Meanwhile, Gyani Mohan Singh also reached the place. We were about 22 people in the Harmandir Sahib, some devotees and others the employees of the Gurudwara. By the time the path was over the firing outside became more intense. 'Sukhasan' of Guru Granth Sahib was done and then taken upstairs. At 10.00 p.m. the tanks started entering the complex and a barrage of shooting from without became more intense as heavy armour began to be used. At this stage an armoured carrior entered and stood beside the Sarovar. The lights on the carrier, when switched on, bathed the whole complex in bright light. We were viewing all this perched in the main dome of Harmandir Sahib and thought that prob ably the fire brigade had come to get water for extinguishing fires raging throughout the city. But we were proved wrong when this vehicle came down to the Parikrama and stared firing. From both sides the tanks started closing in, from clock tower to the Brahm Buta the tanks set fire to all rooms while desperate people collected water from the Sarovar to extinguish the fires. Loud cries and wails of both women and children rent the air. A vigorous battle ensued and the Darshani Deoris of Clock Tower and A tta Mandi along with the Serais (rest houses) was in Army control by 10 o'clock, the next day (June 6). The 40-50 youth who had been holding the forces fought bravely till either they were killed or the ammuniton was exhausted. From about 10 in the night till 4.30 the next mornign we were on the roof of Darbar Sahib."
These accounts of what happended at the Golden Temple on June 5 are in marked contrast to the white paper or the army's common charge sheet to the 379 alleged 'terrorists' captured from Golden Temple now detained under N.S.A. at Jodhpur.
According to the White Paper: " All Commanders were instructed to continuously use the public address systems for a number of hours at every suspected hidout of terrorists to give themselves up in order to prevent bloodshed and damage to holy plac es before the use of force for their apprehension." Was this actually done? Our eye-witness accounts prove that it was not. Regarding Golden Temple, the White Paper is also specific, "During the afternoon and evening of June 5 1984 repeated appe als were made to the terrorists over the public address system to lay down their arms and surrender and to others inside the Temple to come out, to prevent avoidable bloodshed and damage to structures in theTemple Complex. In response to this appeal 129 m en, women and children came out and they were handed over to the civil authorities." Is it possible to believe this version? We have seen how the Army started shelling the Golden Temple without any warning or public announcement from the early hours of June 4. They continued this firing throughout June 4 and 6. The militants also fired in reply but they were no match, either in terms of numbers of men or in amounts of ammuntion. How could the Army make 'repeated appeals' during the afternoon and even ing of June 5 when intense fighting was going on and how could 120 person come out during this raging battle?The Army's version, as revealed by its chargesheet to the 379 alleged 'terrorists' detained at Jodhpur Jail, is even more incredible. On June 5, when they were supposed to have been deputed for duty outside the Golden Temple, the Army had the informati on that "the extremists/terrorists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had collected men, arms, ammunitions and explosives within the Golden Temple and had also made other preparations to wage war against the Government of India with the intention to e xtablish a State independent of the Government of India to be known as Khalistan". Or in other words, Khalistan was to be established at the Golden Temple and if the A.I.S.S.F. member is to be believed, by about 100 fighters equipped mostly with 303 decrepit guns of the II World War, a few 315 rifles and some stenguns. S. S. Bhagowalia an advocate at Gurdaspur and Vice President of the Associtation for Democratic Rights (A.F.D.R. Punjab) investigated and found that Bhindranwale's supporters numbered no more that 140-150. It is strange that the White Paper has nothing to say about the Khalistan flag - a country without a flag! But the White Paper says that Khalistan was to be established at the Golden Temple. According to the Army's chargsheet and als o the White Paper, in response to the Army's repeated appeals to the Terrorists to lay down their arms and surrender, they opened intensive firing from inside the Complex. "They were shouting anti-national slogans." This was a battle not a demon stration. How could 'terrorists' engage in shouting anti-national slogans at a time when they were allegedly using automatic and semi-automatic weapons, grenades, explosives, etc? Even if they did shout these slogans how could the slogans be heard over th e din and noise of rattling stenguns and automatic rifles?
The White Paper also describes how the library was allegedly gutted on the night between June 5 and 6 - "Troops were able to enter the area around the Sarovar through the northern deori and the Southern library building. Terrorists were in control of the Library building and fired from there. At this stage, the library caught fire - the Army fire brigade was rushed but their attempts were failed by the machine-gun fire from the terrorists." A perfect brief for the Army!But according to Duggal who was in incharge of the Sikh Reference Library and who cared for it, the Library was intact when he last saw it on June 6, evening while leaving the Temple Complex. However, he was in for a terrible shock when he was brought back to the Temple complex by the Army on June 14. Let us listen to Duggal's tale of sorrow as well as courage: "On 14th June 1984 I was arrested by the Army and taken inside the Golden Temple, where I was shocked to see that the Sikh Reference Libra ry had been burnt. The entire Golden Temple Complex presented a very, very painful look. It bore at least 3 lakhs of bullet marks. The Akal Takht was in shambles. Guru Nanak Nivas, Teja Singh Samundri Hall, Guru Ram Das Serai and the langar buildings had been burnt. When I left the Complex on 6th all those buildings were in good shape in spite of the Army Attack, Taken to the Library's ruins, I was asked by the Army Col. to take charge of the Library. I asked him as to were is the Library. He said that I had no option but to sign a typed receipt to the effect that I have taken over the charge of the Library. I refused to oblige him saying that I would not tell such a big lie."
The White Paper is very emphatic the "Troops were particularly instructed not to wear any leather items in holy places and to treat all apprehended person with dignity and consideration." What was the reality? The reality was this:-
June 6, 1984 - " At 2 a.m. on June 6", says Prithipal Singh, Sevadar, at the Akal Rest House, "the Army people came to the Rest House. They tore off all my clothes, stripped me naked, my kirpan was snatched, my head gear (patta) was untie d to tie up my hands behind my back. They caught me by my hair and took me along with five others - who were all pilgrims - to the ruins of the water tank, there we were told, "don't move or you'll be shot." They kept hitting us with the rifle b utts. Then a Major came and ordered a soldier, shoot them, then shouted at us, "You must be Bhindranwale's Chelas? You want Khalistan? I said "I am here to do my duty. I have nothing to do with all this." "Six of us were in a line faci ng the Major, when a Pahari soldier started shooting from one end, killing four of us (with 3 bullets each). As my turn was coming, suddenly a Sikh Officer turned up and ordered, "Stop Shooting". Thus I was saved. The Sikh Officer was told, &quo t;these people have ammunitions". At that he ordered them to lock us in a room. Two of us were locked up in a room in Guru Ram Das Serai, but we did not talk nor did I ask the other man's name. On 7th June the door was opened at about 8 or 9 in the m orning. We had gone without water. The floor was covered in blood. I was allowed to leave." This was then the 'dignity and consideration' which the White Paper had claimed was shown to those apprehended by the Army. Bhan Singh picks up the thread of the story at about 4 a.m. onJune 6. "I was arrested along with Sant Longowal and Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra early morning on the 6th. We were encircled by the Army people, throughout the day from 4 a.m. till 5 p.m. when Sant Longowal and Jathedar Tohra were taken to the Army Camp, but I along with many others was kept inside the compound of Guru Ram Das Serai. We were taken away to the Army Camp at about 9.30 p.m." Even on this point of arrest of Longowal and Tohra, the White Paper has a totally different version - "At 1.00 a.m. on June 6, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and Shri G.S. Tohra surrendered near Guru Nanak Niwas with about 350 people. The terrorist opened fire at them and also lobbed hand grenades to prevent surrender. As a result, 70 people were kille d including 30 women and children." Even Longowal is on record that he and Tohra were arrested at 5 a.m. from Guru Nanak Niwas (where the S.G.P.C. Office is now located) and kept there in Army custody the whole day. Neither he nor Bhan Singh talk abo ut surrendering to the Army nor do they refer to the killing of 70 people including 30 women and children, by terrorists at the time of their surrender. Should we believe Bhan Singh (and Longowal) or would we blindly accept the White Paper's Version?
On the morning of June 6, as the girl student opened the door of their small room and "came out to fetch water, what did I see but piles of dead bodies, all stacked one over the other. At first I instinctively felt that I wouldn't manage to go out . All I could see was a ceaseless mount of dead bodies. It seemed that all the persons who werre staying in the Parikrama, not one of them had survived... The Army said later that they did not go inside the Golden Temple wearing boots. But I have seen som e of the dead bodies of the Army men in uniform - they were wearing boots and belts." The White Paper is contradicted once more.The girl student's narration continues. It is an amazing and astonishing account of how she accidentally met Bhai Amrik Singh, Prsident of the A.I.S.S.F. and Bhindranwale's close associate. She had not met him before but once he told her his name, she recognised him at once because his pictures had come out in the papers. How Amrik Singh gave her some water in a bucket which she gave to her relatives and acquaintances, but she could not bring herself to drinking it because it was red, mixed with blood. How Bhai Amrik Singh sent her a message urging her to leave the Temple Complex at once with her group in order to escape being dishonoured or being shot dead as 'terrorists' by the Army personnel, and also to survive to tell the true story of what happen ed inside the Golden Temple to the world outside. She recounts in breathtaking detail how she picked up the courage to first come out of the Complex and then bring out her relatives and acquaintances.
To quote her own words - "So I decided to try to find the way out. There was a man lying dead. I had to place my foot on him. My foot touched sometimes somebody's had, sometimes somebody's body. I had to move in this fashion. There is a staircase next to the Nishan Saheb (outside teh Akal Takht) and next to it there was an iron gate, which had got twisted because of the shelling. I pulled the gate and came out, there was nobody. The place was deserted. The doors of the houses were shut and locked from outside. I was in a haze. For I saw the locks and yet I kept shouting for shelter. Then I came to my senses, realizing that the inhabitants had locked their houses and gone away. Then I broke the mud patch in the wall of a house and entered it. One o f the doors of this house opened out into the Golden Temple. I went back to the temple through this door. I found a wounded man who relayed my message to my grandmother through other wounded persons, that I had managed to come outside, she should also com e out. By then the room in the Akal Takht building, where I had taken shelter with my grandmother was already in flames. The 20-25 people in that room came out with much difficulty and reached the place where I was. The house had been sprayed with shells and bullets and there were gaping holes in the walls. We found a water tank in that house which had escaped destruction, unlike the water tank in the Golden Temple complex. First we all drank water from that tank. We met an injured man who had also taken shelter in that house. He asked us to go with him to his house. We accompanied him. He made us change all our blood-soaked clothes; some we washed clean."The narrations of Bhan Singh, Harcharan Singh Ragis, Giani Puran Singh and the girl student tear apart the White Paper that the Army had been instructed 'to treat all apprehended persons with dignity and consideration', and also that 'no women and chil dren were killed in the action by the troops.'
Bhan Singh remembers- "On the 6th morning when hundreds of people were killed or wounded, everywhere there were cries of those people who were wounded and injured but there was no provisions for their dressings and there were no Red Cross people w ithin the complex... Many young people aged between 18 and 22 years were killed and so were some ladies. A lady carrying a child of only a few months saw her husband lying before her. The child was also killed on account of the firing. It was a very touch ing scene when she placed the dead body of the child alongside her husband's body. Many people were crying for drinking water, but they were not provided any. Some had to take water out of the drains where dead bodies were lying and the water was red with blood. The way the injured were quenching their thirst was an aweful sight which could not be tolerated. The Army people were there, moving about mercilessly without showing any sign of sympathy with those injured or wounded. Those who were under arrest were not provided any facility of water or food or any other thing of that sort. The clothes of those who were arrested were removed and they were only left with shorts-their turbans, shirts, etc. were all removed and heaped together. Such a brute treatme nt was given to them, as if they were aliens and not the citizens of the coutry to which the forces belonged."Harcharan Singh Ragi similarly recounts- "My quarters are on the first floor above the information office and it was unsafe, with the firing going on endlessly, to stay there. Four members of the family of Narinder Pal Singh, the Information Offic er who also lived on the same floor as us and we five took shelter in the basement of the Information office building. On the 6th of June, between 12 noon and 5 p.m., the Army announced that people should come out. This was the first announcement given si nce the Army operations began. All of us in the basement volunteered arrest and the Information Officer and myself showed our identity cards as employees of the S.G.P.C. As we were coming out, we saw that hundreds of people were being shot down as they ca me out. We saw many women being shot dead by the commanders. I also would have been, but for my little girl, Jaswinder Pal Kaur (Anju), rushing to the Army Commander and begging to save her father's life."
And now let us listen to the girl student once more- "On June 6 at o'clock in the evening, they announced a relaxation in the curfew for one hour. Meanwhile, we went through some devious lanes and managed to take shelter in a house which was some distance form the Golden Temple. The Army people announced that everyone should come out. So we came out."
Giani Puran Singh narrates- "At 4:30 a.m. on June 6, Guru Granth Sahib was brought down. PRAKASH done and the Hukumnama taken, the kirtan of Asa-di-vaar started. This kirtan was not done by the appointed Ragi Jatha (Hymn singers) but by members of Bhai Randhir Singh Jatha, one member of which Avtar Singh of Parowal was later martyred inside the Darbar Sahib. The official Jatha of Bhai Amrik Singh had been martyred at the Darshani Deori the previous day. Bhai Avtar Singh was hit by a bullet which t ore through the southern door, one of which is still embedded in the Guru Granth Sahib which is there since Maharaja Ranjit Singh's time. Time passed and at 4:00p.m. on June 6, some poisonous gas was spread and the Akal Takht captured, if not for this gas the forces could not have been able to gain the Akal Takht. At 4:30 the commandant, Brar spoke from a speaker on the Sourhtern Deori that all living people should surrender. All those who had come face to face with the forces had been eliminated. We (I a nd Gyani Mohan Singh) asked all the 22 within the Darbar Sahib to surrender and told the commanding officer that two priests had stayed behind and if need be, he could send his men for them. He did not agree with them and called aloud on the speaker that we should come out with raised hands. We decided against this because if we were shot on the way it would merely be a waste. We were in teh Darbar Sahib till 7:30 when two soldiers and a sewadar were sent to fech us. While on our way out I stopped to pour a handful of water in the mouth of the wounded member of the Jatha, who asked us to send for help. I promised to do so provided I remainded alive. Gen. Brar, meanwhile announced over the loudspeaker that nobody should fire upon us. The moment I stepped o ut of the Darshani Deori, I saw the Akal Takht ruined and the rubble was spread all around. Hundreds of corpses were lying scattered. We were wished by Gen Brar who told that he too was a Sikh. He then enquired as to what did we propose to do. We told him that we wanted to go to the urinal and then be allowed to go to our residences. He allowed us to go to the urinal and then we were questioned of the whereabouts of Santji and were told that he would not be harmed. We told them that they knew better as th ey were in command. We were questioned, whether any machine-gunnists were operating from Darbar Sahib to which we siad that they were welcome to inspect the premises themselves. Five persons accompaied us to the Hari Mandir, one Sikh officer and 3-4 other s. When we started the Sikh officer insisted that we lead because if firing started from within, we would face them, moreover we would be shot if someone shot from within. When we reached the Harimadir, a search was carried out by them, picking and search ing below very carpet but no sign of firing was traced. Meanwhile the wounded member left behind had passed away. His body was placed in a white sheet, brought out and placed along with various others lying outside."
According to the A.I.S.S.F. member, "on 6th June at 5:30 p.m. we surrendered before the Army. 199 surrendered before us. We were made to lie down on the hot road, interrogated, made to move on our knees, hit with rifle butts and kicked with boots on private parts and head. Our hands were tied behind our backs and no water was given to us. We were asked 'how many people were inside? and 'where are the arms and ammunition?' At about 7 p.m., we were made to sit in the parakrama- near the Army tanks. There was firing from the side of the Akal Takht and many were injured." This is yet another convincinbg evidence of the dignity and consideration shown by the Indian Army to those captured, after the action was over.
June 7, 1984 - Giani Puran Singh's account throws light on how and when Bhindranwale was killed: "Time passed away and at 7:30 a.m. on 7th we were taken out of the complex and informed that the bodies of Santji, Gen Subeg Singh, Bhai Amrik Singh, h ad all been found. When asked as to where were the bodies found, the reply was that Santji's body was recovered from between the 2 Nishan Sahibs while Amrik Singh and Shubeg Singh's bodies had been found behind the Nishan Sahibs. The news carried by the m edia said that Santji's body had been recovered from the basement in Akal Takht. We were not shown these bodies but were led to our residences by the military. The head priests who also came there were informed that the bodies of Santji and others had bee n found. In fact, if the bodies had been found, we would have been called for identification but instead we were threatened to be shot lest we tried to go near the rooms where they had been kept. Moreover, if found, the body would have been embalmed taken to Delhi and kept for some time before finally dispersing it. The White Paper's version of the events is distorted and not convincing. For example: "By the morning of June 6, the troops had effectively engaged all gun positions at the Akal Takht and were able to enter the Akal Takht. Room-to-room engagement commenced till it was cleared by 12:30 p.m. on the afternoon of June 6, except for resistance continuing from the ground floor and basements... On the afternoon of June 6, 200 terrorists surrende red including 22 from Harmandir Sahib." Giani Puran Singhy who was one of the 22 has clearly said that the 22 persons who had surrendered from inside Harmandir Sahib were 'some devotees and others the employees of the Gurdwara'. Thus there were no ar med terrorists inside the Harmandir Sahib- 50-60 persons-cited by the girl student and the same figures-of 22 persons-given by all other eye-witesses and also the White Paper. The fact that the girl student accompanied by 27-28 persons left the Harmandir Dahib on the afternoon of June 4 amidst the firing and took shelter in the Akal Takht explains the descrepency in figures. The White Paper also claims that "On 8th June 1984, the terrorists hacked to death an unarmed army doctor who had entered a basement of the Akal Takht to treat some casualties." Giani Puran Singh's account gives an accurate description of thi s incident: "There were 4 Singhs in the basement of the BUNGA JASSA SINGH RAMGARHIA who were giving a tough fight to the forces. They had also pulled down 3 personnel of the army who had ventured close-one of them was a so called doctor. They were sw iftly put to death., The authorities wanted these people to surrender but they wanted some mutually responsible person to mediate. I was then asked to mediate but first of all I asked the army offices of a guarantee that none would be shot only arrested a nd later law would take its own course. They were not ready for this and wished me to talk to the Brigadier who too was noncommittal. They then asked me to inquire if the three army personnel were alive. The reply received was that no live personnel was t here in the base-At this the Brigadier asked me to leave and that they would themselves deal with them. These men in the basement fought the whole day, that night and also the next day when Giani Zail Singh came to visit the ruins of Akal Takht. Some thou ght that they had also aimed for Giani but it was not so. These people did not know that Giani was coming. If they knew before hand, they would definitely put a bullet through the 'tyrant' but they were totally cut out from the outside world. A colonel of the commandos attempted to flush out these men in the basement with a gun and light arrangement but as soon as he entered the basement, a burst of LMG wounded him and it was later learnt that he had succumbed to the injuries in the hospital. 2 cannons we re employed to fire at the Bunga, gaping holes were formed on the Parikrama end but the men within were safe. I saw from the roof of Harmandir Sahib that two grenadiers, had been put on the grenade shooter and a continuous barrage of grenades was being po ured but they still survived. Burnt red chilly bags, chilly powder and smoke granades were thrown in; one of them came out to be greeted with a hail of bullets while the others finally were silenced on the 10th." Similarly the White Paper's account of the amount of arms recovered seem to be patently exaggerated. We may not accept the A.I.S.S.F. members version that there were less than 100 arms, mostly obsolete .303 guns from the II World War and some stenguns, on the ground that it may be a partisan account. At the same time it is not possible to belive the White Paper's version - "A large quantity of weapons, ammuniton and explosives was recovered, including automatic and anti-tank weapons. A small facto ry for the manfacture of hand grenades and sten-guns was also found within the precincts of the Golden Temple." If this modern arms factory had been discovered inside the Golden Temple before the Army Operations began there would have been no room fo r doubt or controversy. But making such a claim after the Army operation was over. Only there was the Army to testify. In contrast, our eye-witness have repeatedly pointed out that the terrorists had a small number of men and limited arms which had to be used sparingly. Would the resistance have collapsed so abruptly, if there were hundreds of terrorist manning a modern arms factory, as claimed by the White Paper. The White Paper's figures of the number of people killed or injured at the Golden Temple during the Army operations, seem to reflect gross under-estimation and understatement. The White Paper's figures of the casualties on account of the Operation Blue star alone are:
1. Own troops killed 83
2. Own troops wounded 249
3. Civilians/terrorist killed 493
4. Terrorists and other injured 86
5. Civilians/terrorists apprehended 592
2. Own troops wounded 249
3. Civilians/terrorist killed 493
4. Terrorists and other injured 86
5. Civilians/terrorists apprehended 592
Our eye-witness accounts point out two unmistakable facts:
(a) There were thousands, perhaps ten thousand people, consisting of pilgrims, S.G.P.C. employees, Akali volunteers came to court arrest, and terrorists present inside the Golden Temple complex when the Army started firing at the Golden Temple from all sides on the dawn of June 4.(b) The battle lasted nearly 56 to 60 hours from 4 a.m. on June 4 to about 4 p.m. on June 6. The firing was almost incessant and continuous and, despite the White Paper's several claims, had no constraints. It was a most fierce battle.
Therefore, not hundreds but thousands could well have died during the operations, and thousands maimed or injured. The girl student had seen stacks and stacks of dead bodies piled up all over the parikrama very early on the morning of June 6. Joginder Singh estimates that at least 1500 dead bodies were lying on the parikrama. Bhan Singh saw hundreds of people dying before him on June 6. Harcharan Singh Ragi saw hundreds of people including women and children, being shot down by Army commandos, as they came out to surrender on the afternoon of June 6 outside the Golden Temple on the Ghanta Ghar side. We may hesitate to accept exact figures such as A.F.D.R. Vice President S. S. Bahagawalia'a estimate of 2009 killed including about 400 Hindu Bhaiyyas or t he AISSF members estimate "that 7 to 8 thousand people were killed" or Surinder Singh Ragi's confident assertions that 'during the Army operation at least 7000 people were killed on the parikrama and another 1000 dead bodies were recovered from various rooms." These are all impressions. There is no reliable estimate because the Press was not allowed. Nevertheless the clear conclusion emerges that hundreds and hundreds of people were killed during the Army Action on Golden Temple in June 1984 most brutally. It was indeed a mass massacre mostly of innocents. The post-mortem reports (see Annexures 7 & amp; 8) speak of the Army's brutatlities in very clear terms- (i) Most of the dead bodies had their hands tied behind their backs implying that they had not died during the action, but like Sevadar Prithipal Singh's temporary companions lined up before th e firing squad, all of them must have been shot after being captured and (ii) At the time of the post-mortem, the bodies were in a putrid and highly decomposed state--they had been brought for post-mortem after 72 hours implying a totally callous attitude towared the injured and the dead. Even after June 6, many died due to negligence, while under the detention of the Army and many others were killed in Army camps. According to the AISSF member: "On the evening of 7th June 1984 I was brought to the Army Camp and locked in the Arms Rooms with 28 persons. It had no ventilation and there was no water. 14 died of suffocation including Sujan Singh, a member of the SGPC." According to a former MLA, Harbans Singh Ghumman, 37 Sikh youths were killed on one of the Army camps at Amritsa r between June 16 and June 18, 1984. He had been personally concerned about this incident at that time as he had learnt that this youngest son, Randhir Singh, was also being detatined in one of the military camps at Amritsar.
One of the purposes of "Operation Bluestar" according to the White Paper, was to flush out the terrorists from the Golden Temple complex. Hundreds of people who were arrested from the Golden Temple after the army action and detained by the Ar my were charged as terrorists". 379 of the alleged 'most dangerous terrorsits' were forced to sign a common confessional statement and thereafter served a common charge sheet that they were all Bhindranwale's closest associates and comrades-in-arms e ngaged in 'waging war against the State'. They were, therefore, detained under the NSA and are now being tried at Jodhpur under the Terrorist-Affected Areas (Special Courts) Act of 1984. As we were curious regarding the extent of danger these hardcore 'te rrorists' posed to the State 'with the intention to establish a State independent from the Government of India to be known as Khalistan", we visited the homes of some of the Jodhpur detenues and met their families or relatives. The evidence collected established beyond doubt that none of the Jodhpur detenues we succeeded in profiling are 'terrorists' but rather all of them are completely innocent, ordinary persons, whose only crime was that they had all gone to or were coming from the Golden Temple-a s devotes or pilgrims visiting the golden Temple for the Guru Parb on June 3, 1984 or farmers gone to the Temple to deliver village donation of grain to the S.G.P.C. or students gone to pay obeisance at their holiest religious shrine, the Harmandir Sahib before their examinations or interviews. The following are the case studies of the Jodhpur detenues:
1. RAMINDERPAL SINGH (Pet name: Happy), aged 20 years, son of Harcharan Singh Ragi, whom we have met already. When Harcharan Singh Ragi and Information Officer Narinder Pal Singh's families came out of the basement on the 6th of June, they were all arr ested from outside the Golden Temple and taken to the Army Camp. In the words of Harcharan Singh Ragi- "I was release on June 18. My wife and daughter were released on June 22, but not the boys. Again, on July 13, my eldest son was released but not R aminderpal, my second son. He was taken to Amritsar Jail from where he took his frist year examination between August 8 and 22. Then he was shifted to Nabha Jail on August 31, 1984. On March 10, 1985, he was taken to Jodhpur Jail, from where he is taking the second year examinations now. There was no charge-sheet against any of us. But Raminderpal was falsely imlplicated as having been arrested from inside the Golden Temple and charged 'with waging war againt the State.' He was put under the Amended NSA, which disregards the recommendations of the Advisory Board.... My son has been charged with "waging war against the State". But he is one of the gentlest and known for his courteous behaviour. He used to play hockey at the district level when he was at school. He is fond of reading, can play the harmonium and he is a good singer. Often he used to accompany me in the golden Temple during our Kirtan sessions. He was a serious student and in December 1983 when there was a strike at Khalsa College, he left it in disgust and studied at home. What he earned doing overtime singing kirtans in Harmandir Sahib, he spent it for lessons in mathematics. His closest friends are Hindus. An ideal boy, so innocent, today he is in Jodhpur Jail accused as an 'extr emist'.With great sadness, his wife said, "One who spent his life in struggle, how could he bring up his children as 'extremists'?
2.KANWALJIT SINGH - We have met Kanwaljit before we left his story at the point when he sent telegram home on the night of June 3, 1984. Operation Blue Star started thereafter. Kanwaljit was arrested by the army from the Serai and was taken to an Army Camp where he was tortured and interrogated. "Why did your come to Golden Temple? Where have you come from? Did you have arms? Did you come to fight?'
Meanwhile, Kanwaljit and Manjit's families in Delhi had no knowledge about their whereabouts, Kanwaljit's mother visited Amritsar in the late June 198 to inquire about her son. His father and brother did not go as it was feared that any male Sikh who w ould go to Amritsar to inquire would be arrested. At Amritsar, Kanwaljits's mother saw a list of those killed, injured, and arrested during Operation Bluestar with the S.G.P.C. In the list of those who had died, there were only 3 or 4 names, that of Bhind ranwale, Amrik Singh and so on. The mother saw Kanwaljit and Manjit's names in the list of those arrested.She was told that Kanwaljit was being detained in an Army Camp. She went to the said Army Camp in July with her sister. She was not allowed to meet her son. She went twice more in July to the Army Camp but was not permitted to see or meet her son.
The Government first informed Kanwaljit's family on September 15, that he had been transferred to the Nabha Jail. They could have an interview with him twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In Nabha Jail, Kanwaljit and many others were made to sign a common confessional statement and served a common charge-sheet alleging that he and his companion, were armed terrorists, that they were followers of Bhindranwale and that they had gathered to wage war against the Indian State in order to establish a se parate State of Khalistan by violent means.
They were then transferred to Jodhpur Special Court. He has been put under NSA, detained for 2 years. Whereas in Nabha Jail, all relatives were permitted to visit, at Jodhpur only parents were allowed to visit once a week.Kanwaljit was brought to Delhi on April 11, 1985 to take his examinations to reappear for B. Com. (Hons.) II year. The parents were allowed to meet him at Tihar Jail only after a lot of harassment and objections.
Kanwaljit is a man of few words. He does not mix much and has few friends, Manjit being the closest. Kanwaljit used to go to the NDMC Stadium at New Delhi every morning for swimming. On returning he used to play carrom and chess with Manjit and read ch ess books. Chess is his first love and he was winning awards in chess competitions. In 1982-83, he came second in the Khalsa College (Evening) Class tournament. In 1983-84, he again came second in the Inter-class Chess Tournament. He received a magnetic c hess set as a prize from Raja Bhalinder Singh, who was President of the Indian Committee of the Asiad Games, 1982. He used to participate in various chess tournaments in Delhi and rarely missed prize chess matches between well known chess masters.There is a photograph of Kanwaljit receiveing a prize from Raja Bhalinder Singh. He looks simple, innocent and so straight-forward and honest. He is not an Amritdhari. Lately, he was very keen to find a job and that is why he was to attend an interview with the National Institue of Bank Management at Delhi on the morning of June 3, 1984 and again take an examination in the afternoon for the State Bank of India Regional Recruitment Group. He has also applied to the Railway Service Commission to take the written examinations for recruitment to non-technical popular categories such as signallers, ticket collectors, train/office clerks, etc. He was to appear for this examination on 26 February 1984 but it was postponed. It was to be held again on September 9, but this time Kanwaljit was under detention.
Kanwaljit enjoys a very good reputation. Mr. Shyam Lal Garg, Member of the Delhi Metropolitan Council from Tri Nagar and Mr. Sahib Singh Verma, Member of the Municipal Corporation from Lawrence Road, West Delhi, have both certified that Kanwaljit was p ersonally known to them and that he was just a student and never participated in any party or political activity.3. BHUPINDER SINGH, aged 22 years, s/o Jiwan Singh r/o Vill. Rayya Tehsil Baba Bakala, P.S. Beas, Distt, Amritsar - Interview with the father, Jiwan Singh:
"I came here during partition from Sargodah, Distt. Multan, which is now in Pakistan, I have 3 sons and 2 daughters. I have a business of paints, steel trunks and agricultural implements. I have no agriculture land. I am the Pradhan of Akali Dal ( Longowal) unit in village Rayya.
My youngest son Bhupinder used to manufacture steel almirahs. He had taken part in the Rasta Roko movement, putting up posters, etc. but was not arrested then. But during the Constitution agitation of 1983 he was arrested and mercilessly beaten but he was released due to the intervention of Bhai Amrik Singh of the AISSF. That was his first contact with AISSF. And is was only after his brother, Tejender Singh's arrest in a false case for which he was jailed and the case went on for 7 months, that Bhupin der started visiting Darbar Sahib. After his brother's arrest, because of the harassment of the police, he was careful and often he used to sleep out.
Finally, he himself was arrested at Kathiwali Bazar on June 6, 1984 after he had escaped from Golden Temple on June 3. He was taken to an Army Interrogation center from where he was taken to Nabha Jail. The army subjected him to inhuman torture. When h e was in Nabha Jail, he was taken to Ladha Kothi in Sangrur for 18 days. When I saw him, I could see that he had been terribly tortured but he wouldn't tell us. There I learnt from him that he had taken Amrit and was doing Path daily, which he said gave h im strength.In all Bhupinder has been implicated in 8 cases, each of which is false:
(i) Today he is Jodhpur jail because he is supposed to have been arrested from the Golden Temple for 'waging war against the State'. But the police know that he was picked up from Kathiwali Bazaar outside Amritsar.
(ii) The Nirankari murder case of village Khabbe Rajputana near P.S. Mehta of 1979-80, when Bhupinder was just a school boy. It is obvious that this case has been planted on him retrospectively.(iii) Another Nirankari murder case of village Ghanupur Kaleke, P.S. Chaherta, near Metha Chowk of 1980. (iv) Mannawale Railway Station, Flying Mail Murder Case of Sub-Inspector in 1982. (v) Encounter of an 'extremist' group with the Railway Protection Force at Rayya Railway Station.
(vi) Nirankari Bomb case of Rayya - Bhupinder was at thome at 4-5 p.m. when the bomb exploded. Bhupinder's name was not there in the initial list of suspects but was added later.(vii) Sadhuram Bomb Case - which occurred at 10 p.m. when Bhupinder was actually at home. (viii) Dhyyanpur Bridge Expolsion case in which Bhupinder's name was added to the list of the three accused. At this point, Jiwan Singh brought out the photograph of his son Bhupinder.
Bhupinder's mother has given up eating certain dishes which the boy was fond of. Very gently, she told us that the food the boys get in jail is so bad.Jiwan Singh continued, and went on to narrate the harassments that he and his family have undergone:
"After the Operation Bluestar, the CRP visited my house 3 times in 24 hours and raided it but found nothing. They abused my wife and daughters and daughter-in-law.
After a couple of days, the Punjab Police came and took me and my eldest son Gurvinder Pal to Jandiala, P.S. and released us after a couple of days. Another couple of days, the Punjab Police came again and took away two of my sons Gurvinder Pal and Tej inder for interrogation and detaind them at Rayya P.S. for 20 days.But we were not to have peace. A couple of days after Gurvinder and Tejinder's removal, came the army, who took me, my son-in-law and the son of my brother-in-law to the Army camp at Sathiala College, Baba Bakala. We were made to sit in the hot sun. We were terrorised and then released."
The old man said with the great bitterness, "We are gulams (slaves). Whenever they made signs, we are taken."4. Kashmir Singh s/o Gajjan Singh, r/o Vill & P.O. Baba Bakala, P.S. Beas, Distt. Amritsar, aged 50 years - Interview with Smt. Jasbir Kaur, 45 years, wife of Kashmir Singh.
"My husband went to Darbar Sahib for the Guru Purb. He did not return for about a month, when I learnt from a policman who came to tell me that he had been arrested and was in Nabha Jail. I went to see him on 20.7.84 and heard that he had been pic ked up from Bazaar Kathian on June 6." (Obviously, he too like Bhupinder Singh of Rayya who was arrest from outside the State' a middle aged small farmer hardly owning one and half acres of land and four small children to feed and not belonging to an y political organisation. He was too dangerous to move about freely and knew so much that he had to be repeatedly tortured at Ladha Kothi. "He was taken twice to Ladha Kothi and tortured for 12 days each time by the well known methods.""I met him again on October 31. Since then I have not been able to see him since I am too poor to afford it."
5. RAM SINGH, s/o Late Makhan Singh, r/o Vill & P.O. Baba Bakala, aged 30 years - His uncle Sulakhan Singh (who looks after the family) was interviewed:"Ram Singh is the only son of widow. He has only 1/9 acre of land, belongs to a poor peasant family. He has studied only upto class 8 and was employed in a small capacity in the Government depot. He is a bachelor.
He had gone to Darbar Sahib for the Guru Purb. He was arrested from Golden Temple charged, with 'waging war', taken to Amritsar and Nabha Jails and is now in Jodhpur jail. There was never any case against him. He was extremely well-behaved. He is total ly innocent.The police have been coming and repeatedly interrogating his mother and uncle.
6. GULZAR SINGH s/o Late Arjun Singh, r/o Vill & P.O. Baba Bakala, aged 33 years - Interviewed his uncle Rattan Singh, a granthi.They have a joint family. Gulzar is married and has a little girl, aged one and a half years. He is a preacher and does the Akhand Path in the Gurudwara. He went to Golden Temple for Guru Purb and was arrested from there and chrged with 'waging war aga inst the State'.
Gulzar is a simple person. He studied in a orphanage in Amritsar.7. MANJIT SINGH s/o Bawa Singh
8. RANDIR SINGH s/o Mangal Singh9. RANDIR SINGH s/o Bahadur Singh
r/o village Dehriwal, Kiran, P.S. Kalanpur, Distt. Gurudaspur.
These 3 young boys took the village donation of grain to Darbar Sahib for the Guru Purb but were arrested and charged with 'waging war against the State' and are now proclaimed as terrorists and lodged in Jodhpur Jail. 10. BAKSHSISH SINGH, s/o Hon. Cap t. Ram Singh, r/o Vill. Butala, P.S. Dhilwan, Distt Kapurthala, aged 43 years.Interview with Bakshish Singh's sister, Smt. Hardev Kaur, a widow with two children.
"My brother Bakshish Singh was a manager of Punjab & Sind Bank branch at Guru Ramdas Serai, Golden Temple, Amritsar. He was receiveing a salary of Rs. 3000 per month. He was a devout Sikh, had taken Amrit and used to preach in the villages and exhort people to take Amrit. He was very generous and used to help people.Our mother is 65-year-old and father is ill and now in Patiala Hospital. We have no land.
On June 7, 1982 my brother had organised a religous meeting at the village, but he did not speak. Early the next day he was arrested for the first time in his life, on a false report that he was propagating Khalistan. He was detained at P.S. Dhilwan an d then sent to Interrogation Center, Amritsar for one week, where he was severly beaten. Later he was taken to Kapurthala jail and was released only afer 1 year between June 1983 and May 1984 when Bakshish rejoined his work at the Punjab and Sind Bank, Am ritsar.On June 1, 1984 Bakshish had gone to the Golden Temple with his wife for her treatment for tumour and they were in Guru Ram Das Serai, from were both were arrested on June 6. His wife was taken to Jallandhar jail, kept therre for 22 days and then taken to Hospital and operated upon.
Bakshish Singh was first taken to Amritsar Jail and after two months in Nabha Jail and after 7 months there, and mercilessley tortured at Ladha Kothi were he was kept for 15-20 days, ant then he was shifted to Jodhpur Jail on January 11, 1985. We have not met him since then.The family is so impoverished that Bakshish's two sons could not continue their studies. The elder son (Iqbal) along with his mother are in Patiala Rajindra Hospital suffering from mental depression. The Bank had not paid Bakshish Singh anything and ha s shown him as absent. We have about 5 to 6 acres of land for the entire joint family.
We are being constantly harassed. Earlier the Army used to come and interrogate us and now the polcie visit us every other day."We have here documented for the first time eye-witness accounts of what really happened when the Indian Army attacked the Golden Temple complex in the first week of June 1984. It is one of the most gory and tragic chapters in the entire history of mode rn India. The brutalities, the killings, the desecration and destruction of their most sacred place, has left a most bitter memory and feeling of deep resentment in the mind of every Sikh.
At the end of it all, two questions are asked by the Sikhs of Punjab. Was the Army action necessary and unavoidable? Secondly, if unavoidable, could it not have taken a different form, avoiding all the destruction and the blood shed and the brutalities ?Kirpal Singh, President of Khalsa Dewan, Amritsar, told us - "If the government had been sincere in its efforts in solving the Punjab problem, it would have solved it long ago even before the Blue Star Operation, and there would have been no cause for the Akalis and others to orgainise Morchas of the thousands of the peopl, from time to time, and the extremists would have been isolated and it would have become known as to who were the extremists, what kind of men they were, and what they had been doing. The Government could have negotiated with them. If the Government could talk with Laldenga of Mizos and extremists of the Nagaland, who had been fighting with our military for the last 31 years, then what was the difficulty in talking to the extemi sts of Punjab and asking them what they wanted, what they were fighting and why they were collecting arms?"
Similarly, S.S. Bhagowalia who is the Vice-President of the Association fro Protection of Democratic Rights (Punjab) was extememly forthright, "when the government in 1948 could control and capture Hyderbad from the Nizam who wanted to secede from independent India without any violence and killing of the common people, why this Government could not capture Bhindranwale with tact, without any damage to the Golden Temple? This has created tension and anger amongst the minds fo the people". Surinder Singh Ragi gave another example - "The Indian Army had captued 93,000 soldiers of Pakistan army in Bangladesh in 1971 without bloodshed. Was bloodshed the absolutely necessary at the Golden Temple to flush out a hundred or so terrorists?"Hazara Singh Vadale, and employee of the SGPC, echoed a common sentiment. "The way the government of Independent country attacked the Golden Temple reminded us of the medieval time when our religion was attacked and we are persecuted. Thousands of women, children, pilgrims, had gathered here on June 3 for Gurupurab. They had no connection with politics, why they shot down?"
Kirpal Singh elaborating on the excesses committed said: "At the time of Blue Star Act, it could be known how many died of those who were fighting with the military but the fact is that due to Guru Purb Day hundereds of pilgrims had come and were staying in the premises of the Darbar Sahib. There were children and women among them. These pilgrims were unarmed and the military attacked them and killed them. Thereafter the military did not allow their dead bodies to be cremated by the relative nor h anded over the same to them. Their dead bodies were insulted. No effort was made to record their names and addresses. Now it has created a lot of problem. For example, if any deceased has any insurance or bank balance or any land dispute, his heirs require death certificate but in absence of any record of it, they did not get any compensation. Even in the history of military wars, the people are allowed to take the dead bodies from each others territories by showing white flags. When General Dyer killed people in Jallianwall Bagh, he also allowed the dead bodies to be taken by the relatives."Shiv Singh Khushpuri, 65 years, a member of the S.G.P.C. from Gurdaspur district, said, "It was the duty of the State to identify the bodies of those who died in Operation Blue Star. Afer the Jallinwala Bagh massacre, the British Government identi fied those killed, handed over their bodies to the next kin and paid Rs. 2000 as compensation for every person killed in the incident. Whereas in Blue Star Operation, the present governemnt of an apparently independent country have not only not identified those killed or missing, rather they are harassing and persecuting the families and friends of those who are reportedly missing."
S.S. Bhagowailia throws light on the efforts of the Government to suppress information. "The doctors who conducted the post-mortem of the victims of the army action at Golden Temple were simply terrorised. If there were 20 bullets in a body, they were forced to record only two bullet wounds, under the threat of being shot." This only indicates the extent of massacre that took place and the ferocity with which the Army undertook the operation. The common feeling in Punjab is that it was indeed not an Operation against Bhindranwale and other so called terrorists according to the Government, it was an attack on the Sikhs "to teach them a lesson" so that they would never again raise their head or voice of protest.
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was the leader of Damdami Taksal, a Sikh organisation based in the Punjab, India. Though never officially recognised he was also associated as the leader of an armed militant group named the Dal Khalsa. Originally a minor, but charismatic preacher in Punjab, he attained fame as the leader of the Khalistan separatist movement in India. In Punjab, the Congress (I) party followed a strategy of alternating communal incitement and appeasment, which were based on a desire for the popular vote and a control of the religious affairs of the Sikhs through the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC).The SGPC is the body that administered Sikh religious affairs and places of worship. This explosive mix of politics and manipulation of religious identities and communities succeeded in bringing the fringe of the Sikh far right into the forefront of State politics. Nowhere is this more evident than in Indira Gandhi's support of Bhindranwale, which succeeded in bringing a rather obscure, and radical teacher to the forefront. His political demands started attracting young male Sikhs. His most radical (and important) demand was the establishment of an Independent Khalistan, separate from India.
Bhindranwale exploited the political frustrations of the Sikhs and succeeded in mobilizing a fundamentalist platform. Despite his seccessionist ideals, he was supported by the Congress (I) in the SGPC elections of 1979, though only 4 of his 40 candidates were able to secure seats.Bhindranwale was widely believed to be a supporter of the creation of Khalistan, the proposed Sikh nation-state. However, in a BBC interview he stated that if the government agreed to the creation of Khalistan, he would not refuse, what he mainly wanted was for Sikhs to be treated as equal citizens of India. Other quotes attributed to Bhindranwale include 'we are not in favour of Khalistan nor are we against it.'Responding to the creation of Khalistan he is qouted as saying, 'We won't reject it. We shall not repeat the mistake of 1947.' to which he added, 'if the Indian Government invaded the Darbar Sahib complex, the foundation for an independent Sikh state will have been laid.'In 1978, he was involved in a violent confrontation at an event of Sikhs adhering to the Nirankari sect of Sikhism. The Nirankaris are considered to be Hindus guised as Sikhs by the majority of Sikhs. During this confrontation three Nirankaris and twelve Dal Khalsa members were killed. The FIR named 22 persons, several of whom were known associates of Bhindranwale. In 1981, the leader of Nirankari sect was killed and Bhindranwale was implicated in ordering his death. He was later released without charge by the Indian courts.
It is alleged that Bhindranwale's squads were responsible for the killing of Lala Jagat Narain, the proprietor of the Hind Samachar Group, publishers of the popular daily, Punjab Kesri, and a bitter critic of Bhindranwale and alleged to have written abusive words about Sikhs and Sikhism in his newpaper. Following this, the Congress Government made moves ostensibly to arrest Bhindranwale. Bhindranwale offered himself for arrest. Over the next 25 days, sporadic violence erupted all over Punjab, while Bhindranwale was held in custody in a government circuit house. These incidents included the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Lahore. On October 15, Bhindranwale was released after the Home Minister, without inquiry or judicial process, announced to the Parliament that Bhindranwale was not involved in the murder of Lala Jagat Narain.Bhindranwale continued his radical actions.
He armed his followers and it is alleged by the Indian government that attacked Hindus and moderate Sikhs who did not support an independent Khalistan. Violence exploded all through the state of Punjab with police, Sikhs and Hindus fighting amongst each other. However, no overt attempt was made to arrest Bhindranwale himself. These actions only served to make Bhindranwale seem invincible and gained him more supporters. He moved freely across Punjab and even through the nation's capital, armed with his followers.When the government arrested one of Bhindranwale's close associates Amrik Singh, the President of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF), on 19 July 1982, Bhindranwale decided to move into the sanctuary of the Golden Temple complex.Bhindranwale viewed himself as the champion of the Sikh cause in India. But in using the Golden Temple as his headquarters, many people believed he showed marked disrespect for the Sikh religion. He had shifted himself to the first floor of the Akal Takht, which is where the Guru Granth Sahib is kept at night, after being taken from the Harmindar Sahib. For anyone to stay above the Guru Granth Sahib, is disrespectful. But Bhindranwale and his immediate accomplices were living on the Akal Takht's first floor.In March 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi initiated Operation Bluestar and ordered the Indian Army to surround the temple to flush out the militants holed up inside. While there is little doubt that Bhindranwale did not survive the operation, the circumstances leading to his death are shrouded in mystery.
According to Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar, who commanded the operation, the body of Bhindranwale was identified by a number of agencies, including the police, the Intelligence Bureau and militants in the Army's custody. Bhindranwale's brother is also resported to have identified Bhindranwale's body. Pictures, of what appear to be Bhindranwale's body have been published in at least two widely circulated books Tragedy of Punjab: Operation Bluestar and After and Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle). BBC correspondent Mark Tully also reported seeing Bhindranwale's battered body during his funeral.People who maintain that he survived the operation, include Dilbir Singh, the Public Relations Advisor at Guru Nanak Dev University. He stated that Bhindranwale was injured on the right side of his temple. A government doctor verified that he was captured alive. R.K. Bajaj, a correspondent for Surya magazine, claimed that he saw a photograph of Bhindranwale in Army custody.General Shabeg Singh- the great general of modern times belonged to village Khiala, about nine miles from Am Chogwan Road. The eldest son of Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur. He had three brothers and a sister. The General traced its lineage to great Sikh warrior, Bhai Mehtab Singh who along with Bhai Sukha Singh slew the notorious Massa Rangar in 1740 and thus avenged the desecration of the Golden Temple. The family was was well-to-do and prosperous and had good size of land holding of over 100 acres. The village Khiala was earlier known as Khiala Nand Singhwala. Nand Singh was the great grandfather of Shabeg Singh. Later on the name got shortened. Mother of Shaheg Singh was devout lady but she was very practical and a great disciplinarian. She never forgot to remind her children and grand children that they were the descendents of Baba Mehtab Singh and must live up to the family name.
Sardar Bhagwan Singh was the village Lambardar and remained quite occupied with the problems of the village folk who always looked to him for guidance and depended greatly upon his advice .In 1952, the younger brothers Sardar Shamsher Singh, Sardar Jaswant Singh along with their brother-in-law shifted to Haidwani in the Terrai area of UP after having bought farmlands there. In 1957, Jaswant Singh died. From his early childhood Shabeg Singh displayed qualifies of leadership and intelligence much above that of the average village child. He was quick witted and often pontaneously composed extemporaneous verses to caricature interesting village personalitiesHe displayed a keen interest in history and literature and his village teachers were impressed with his intellectual ability.They advised Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur to send him to a school. He was sent to Khalsa College Amritsar for secondary education and from there to a Govt. College Lahore for higher education. He was an outstanding foot ball and hockey player and excelled in athletics. At the age of 18 years he had equaled the India records in 100 meters sprint and was the District Broad jump champion. However, even though he had a natural ability for sports he did not wish to pursue that as a career, his mind was on the army, which was considered a noble profession. He excelled in studies and generally topped his class.In 1940, an officers selection team visiting Lahore colleges were looking for fresh recruits to the Indian Army officers cadre. Out of a large number of students, who applied, Shabeg Singh was the only one to he selected from Government College and sent for training in the officer training school. After training he was commissioned in the second Punjab Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. Within a few days the Regiment moved to Burma and joined the war against the Japanese, which was then in progress.
In 1944 when the war ended he was in Malaya with his unit. After partition, when reorganization of the regiments took place, he joined the Parachute brigade as a Paratrooper. He was posted in the 1st para battalion in which he remained till 1959.By nature Gen Shabeg was a voracious reader, he had read about every military campaign and knew the biography of every military general of consequence. He had a natural flair for history and loved reading. He could fluently speak Punjabi, Persian, Urda, Gorkhali besides English and Hindi. He was an instructor in the Military Academy at Dehra Dun and held a number of important staff appointments in various ranks In the army he had a reputation of being fearless officer and one who did not tolerate any nonsense. People either loved him or dreaded him because of his frank and forthright approach. During the course of his service in the Indian army,Shaheg Singh fought in every war that India participated in.In 1947, he was at Naushera in Jammu and Kashmir fighting against the Pakistan Army. While at Staff College, in addition to the academic work, he set a record in winning three, point to point and five flat races on horse back a record never equaled. Because of his knowledge of military science and excellent grasp of military operations he was appointed a Brigade Major after the staff course. As Brigade Major of 166 Infantry Brigade- a crack formation, he feit most at home when the formation was out on military exercises. In 1962 during the India-China war, he was in NorthEast Frontier Agency as a Lt Col in HQ four Corps where he was GSO-J (Intelligence). In the 196S operations against Pakistan, he was in the Haji Pir Sector in Jammu and Kashmir, commanding a battalion of Gorkha troops.
He commanded 3/11 Gorkha Rifles with distinction and was mentioned in dispatches for the capture of important enemy positions on the Haji Pir front.A few days before the battalion was to he launched into attack, the Commanding Officer (that time Lieutenant Colonel) Shabeg Singh received a telegram from his mother informing him that his father had expired. Being the eldest he quietly put the telegram in his pocket and no one in his battalion even knew that the commanding officer had lost his father on the eve of battle, Only when the operations were over, did he apply for leave and perform his duty of consoling his mother and family. His mother, Pritam Kaur, never asked why he had not been reached for performing the last rites. Everything was understood the call of duty to defend the nation's frontiers was of primary importance.Soon after the 1965 operations, Shabeg became Col G.S. of an infantry division, after which he was given command of the crack 19 Infantry brigade in Jammu Sector.In 1/9 when the Eastern sector of India was becoming deeply involved in Naga anti-insurgency operations he was posted as Deputy GOC of the largest Indian Division - eight Mountain Division which had nearly 50 thousand troops under command. With his leadership qualities and employment of dare~devil tactics he was greatly successful in handling the counter-insurgency operations in that region. Mukhti Bahini In 1971, when the political turmoil in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) started and the Bengalis declared their intentions to separate, the Yahya Khan Govt cracked down on the Bengalis, forcing them to flee to neighboring Indian States. India decided to intervene and in 1971 started the clandestine insurgency operations in East Pakistan.The Indian Army Chief Field Marshal Manekshaw specially selected Shabeg Singh, then a brigadier, and made him in-charge of Delta Sector with lead Quarters at Aggartala. He was given the responsibility of planning, organizing and directing insurgency operations in the whole of Central and East Bangladesh. Under his command were placed all the Bangladesh officers that had deserted from the Pakistan Army. These included Col Osmani, as adviser, Maj Zia-Ur-Rehman and Mohammad Mustaq.
Zia Ur Rehman later became the President of Bangladesh while Mustaq Mohammed became Bangladesh army chief. Starting from about January to October 1971, the insurgency operations gradually grew to such an intensity that by the time war started, the Pakistan army in East Bengal had completely lost their will to resist. The Indian Govt did not want the world to know that the Indian Army was training and directing the Bengali insurgents so all activities were very secret. Shabeg was so thoroughly involved in these clandestine operations that for five months from December 70 to April 71, his family had no news about his whereabouts. They believed he was till in Nagaland and wondered why he did not write because he had always been regular in writing home to his wife.In April 1970, the first letter was received from the Civilian address of a Merchant shop in Aggartala and his name was written as S.Baigh, such was the nature of secrecy maintained of the Army's involvement in the insurgency movement. The wife was quite confused and the family wondered what was going on because the letter was very brief and just said, "don't worry I am ok.". Meanwhile as the Mukti Bahini got bolder, the Pak Army in the East began to grow demoralized due to the onslaught. It got so widely dispersed in trying to contain the 'Mukti Bahini' that when the Indian Army launched its operations in Nov.1971 they were able to walk through to Dacca, virtually unopposed. Over one hundred thousand enemy troops with the complete general staff surrendered,leading to the emergence of Bangladesh.
The credit of this great achievement was mainly due to the efforts of Shabeg Singh, who spent day and night organizing, motivating and training young Bengali youth to fight for their land. Such was the motivation of a Bengali youth force known as Mukti Bahini and so perfect the direction of their operation that no senior administrative officer felt safe in Bengal. Guerilia strikes were launched on five star hotels and on ships in Chittagong harbor to show the extent of power which the Mukti Bahini wielded. Strategic bridges were destroyed, factories closed and movement within Bangladesh restricted resulting in a paralysis of the economy. No doubt it was a cakewalk for the Indian Army when the actual operations were launched. The Indian government promoted Shaheg Singh to the post of Major General and awarded him the Param Vashist Sewa Medal (or PVSM) is a military award of India, which is awarded in recognition to peace-time service of the most exceptional order.in recognition of his services. He had earlier been awarded the Ati Vashist Sewa Medal also. He was made General Officer Command of States of MP Bihar and Orissa.The Jaya Pyakash Narayan movement had started during 1972-73 and became a serious threat to the Indira Govt. Police were sympathetic with JP and his followers, so the Government decided to use the Army. Gen Shabeg was asked to arrest JP and take some harsh measure against his followers but he refused saying this was not his job. The result was that the Congress Govt later instituted a CBI inquiry to harass him on cooked-up charges and he was out posted of the area. After the Indo-Pak war, all the Pakistani POWs were under his jurisdiction and senior General Staff were kept at Jabalpur which was also the HQs of MP.Bihar and Orissa area. Due to jealousy of certain senior army officers , he was not given the command of a Division which was a move of the Army for denying him promotion. Here was a field commander with so much war experience-denied command of a combat formation. Why so?
Only to do deny him promotion when his name came up. While he was posted as GOC of the UP Area HQs in whose jurisdiction the Kumaon Regimental Center is placed, it was found that the commander of the Kumaon Military Farm had given a large sum money to the Chief, Gen Raina, who was himself from the same regiment. A court of inquiry discovered that General Raina (a Kashmiri Brahmin), Army received over two hundred thousand rupees from the Kumaon farm to meet expenses for his daughter's marriage. When this information was brought to the notice of the General Office Commanding, Shabeg Singh; he told Gen Raina about the findings of the Court of Inquiry and requested the chief to return the amount as the Military farm of the Kumaon Regt was already running a loss. The result was that Gen Shabeg was promptly posted out of the this indiscretion and the inquiry hushed up. The forthwith posting was an unprecedented action because peacetime postings are never conducted on such emergency basis. Soon after that the Army instituted a court of inquiry against Gen Shabeg Singh which dragged on for one year till the date of his retirement on May, 1 1976.The main charge against the General had accepted a plaque costing Rs 2500 as a gift on his positing out of Jabalpur area HQs. -Even though a similar present had been predecessor and it is common for senior officers to accept such gifts. However, in the case of Gen Shabeg it became an offense. Some other flimsy charges were also made like allowing his official house land to be used for cultivation purposes and permitting sale of goods purchased from customs in the area HQs Canteen. These practices had been in vogue even before Gen had taken command of the area in 1972.
The vindictiveness of Indian Government and the Army Chief was made obvious, when one day prior of Gen Shabeg's retirement, on April 30, 1976 the hero of Mukti Bahini, a highly decorated general with PVSM & AVSM, who had been actively involved in every operation that Indian Army fought since his joining service and who spent the major portion of his life in field areas separated from the cost of his wife's health and the education of his children was dismissed from the Army. Such was the treatment meted out to a brave soldier and an outstanding General, a leader of men, whom the Indian government and some senior Army officers in 1984 after Operation Blue Star dubbed as 'disgruntled' and frustrated because he was loyal to his community and fought for its honor and to protect the Golden Temple against the Army attack. Gen Shabeg Singh was convinced, even while he was still serving in the Army, that the Government of India was curbing the freedom of Sikhs all over India. He was aware of the discrimination against Sikhs in denying them promotions and the general hostility of the Govt. who were set to weed out the Sikhs from the Army. The general reduction in the strength of Sikhs in the Army and the policy of the Govt. towards Sikhs in Punjab by denying them capital industry, restricting the Sikh peasant to farming of wheat and crops whose prices were also controlled to deny them full reward. The denial of full and fare shares of river waters were apart of an overall conspiracy to deny Sikhs their legitimate due.At the same time the propaganda of the Indian Government against the Sikhs, painting them as communal. Their demand for autonomy was treated as treachery and anti-patriotic by the Govt, and the "free" press vociferously branded the Sikh demands as secessionist. The beleaguered Sikhs had no way to voice their grievances, they were not properly organized, they had no press which commanded international attention. The Akali party as painted as party of uneducated, unlettered, obscurantists Sikhs so that belonging to intelligentsia, shied away from it.The Akalis in turn were suspicious of these former Government servants and doubted their loyalties. This resulted in growing gap between the Sikh Intelligentsia and Sikh politicians. Retired Sikh Army officers as well as Civil Administration preferred to join the Congress rather than a Sikh political party. In 1977, Gen Shabeg Singh decided to throw-in his lot with the Akali Party as it was the only party in Punjab which was Sikhism oriented instead of Congress which was more of a secular party. He met Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra and offered to work as a soldier of Panth.
The shrewd SGPC president was initially hesitant and distant but gradually was won over by the sincerity of the general and started seeking his advice important matters like associating Sikh Intelligentsia and ex servicemen with the Aakli Morcha. It was the way of Shaheg Singh thatt once he took a decision, he stuck to it and refused to be shaken from his resolve. His brother, who was progressive and well -to- do farmer and an active political worker in the Terrai (state of UP in North India)at Bazpur became the first victim of the Government's oppression on the family. The local Congress leader along with the police connived to finish him and he was killed by the Congress leader in 1978. The same congressman has ever since been terrifying the Sikhs in that area. The loss of his younger brother, was a big blow to Shabeg Singh but his resolve not weaken.The general and his family members were harassed, the CBI tried to implicate the general in a case of alleged misappropriation of wealth and dragged on the case till 1983 Dec., to embarrass and harass him. Eventually the case fell through due to its flimsiness and the acquitted general said to his son, "These CBI official knowing too well the weakness of their case and feeling ashamed of their vain attempts to slander me could not bear to look me in the face."
For five years he had to bear with this govt. sponsored harassment only because he had opted to politics and not taken repressive means against Jaya Prakash Narain's movement a few years earlier.Gen Shabeg Singh was very active during the Akali's peaceful agitation against Government policies of "seeing Sikhs as terrorists" and "river waters and transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab" of 1980 to 84. He courted arrest a number of times and won the hearts of the agitationist who saw that here was one leader who did not accept any preferential treatment in prison. He slept on the floor on a single rug and gave his cot to any old or infirm co-prisoner. He cared for their wants and protested to jail authorities for better conditions for the old and weak agitationists. He won the respect of his colleagues and other leaders like Prakash Singh Badal, Balwant Singh, H.S. Dhindsa and Vice Chancellor B.S.Samundri.
Most Akali leaders liked and appreciated his work and sense of dedication. All those who associated with him were enthused by his Spirit He became popular with the people in Punjab and was soon fully engrossed in his service to the "'Panth". During the periods when he was out of jail he spent a major portion of his time in the village at Khiala where his mother lived He did not care for the old age comforts that he had planned for by constructing a comfortable house at Dehra Dun. His wife too came to stay in the village where he spent most of the time. This was inspite of her ill health due to a defective kidney and hypertension and the neglect of their house at Dehra Dun. Punjab had become a leaderless state in 1982- or perhaps there were two many leaders. The people of Punjab were confused. There was Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Parkash Singh Badal, Sant Longowal, Jagdev Singh Talwandi and a host of other big and small leaders. But everyone was suspect in the eyes of the people thanks to the Govt. propaganda and machination of Congress led by Gandhi. Now stepped another leader, a charismatic personality.
A saint and leader of the renowned 'Damdami Taksal' Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. A selfless, dedicated leader who was frank, forthright and outspoken. He had but one interest only - the interest of the Sikh community - the Khalsa. He did not mince words when he attacked the deceitful politics of the Congress. He spoke out plainly on how the Sikhs had been exploited, and how the Akalis', inspite of their assertions, had fallen prey to the politics of deceit and disruption. They were accused of neglecting Sikh interest when in power to appease the Central Congress Government. People flocked to him. He soon emerged as the undisputed leader of the Sikhs. His following grew at an alarming rate to the discomfort of the Indira's congress Government. When Gen Shabeg Singh met Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, he felt naturally attracted to this out spoken, plain and bold man who was a natural leader and whose word, all Sikhs, specially in rural Punjab, The two became closer and closer with passing time.In 1983 Gen Shabeg Singh and other leaders suggested to Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra to get together the Sikh intellectuals and discuss the dangerous situation that was being created by the Government,which was bent upon exploiting the Sikhs to win popular Hindu support and how it could lead to a breaking point. Gen Shabeg Singh worked ceaselessly in drafting letters and inviting eminent Sikhs and ex-Army officers to attend the meeting. which was eventually held and all shades of Sikh leadership felt convinced of the need of unity at this critical juncture. A very large number of retired army personnel attended this meeting and this frightened the Govt. A resolution was made that if need be, Sikhs would sacrifice their lives for the cause.
A line was drawn and all who agreed were asked to step across it. Gen Shabeg Singh led the way. With passing time, the only way the Sikhs could escape from the conflagrant situation that was developing was to remain united, but the Govt was steadily working toward eroding any such moves because it had already made up its mind to teach the Sikhs a lesson.Indira Gandhi, developed a new strategy in dealing with the unwelcome emergence of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. She cleverly planned to use the phenomenon to finish Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrranwale and also win the support of Hindu majority at the cost of the Sikhs. A massive smear campaign was launched to denigrate the new leader who she knew would never compromise on principles. The story of what followed is well known. With each passing day the Governments shameless tirade against the Sikhs grew and grew. There was no way for the Sikhs to respond bul only by getting stuck deeper in the quagmire.Eventually Sant Bhindranwale and his loyalist were forced to seek shelter in the apparent safety of Akal Takhat. The only hope of Sikhs was unity of leadership but that was not to be. They were not strong enough to repel an all out Govt attack, though they had the power to hold the police and allied security forces at bay, perhaps for many months. Now Sant Jarnail Singh needed Gen Shabeg Singh's help. The General was away at Dehra Dun trying to recuperate from a serious heart attack that he had suffered a few months before, while on one of his "Sikh Prachar" meetings. A special messenger reached the house at Dehra Dun in the middle of March 1984, with a message from Sant Jarnail Singh Bhandranwale that he was needed at Amritsar. After convalescence at Dehra Dun, Shabeg Singh and his wife had planned on a visit to Hajur Sahib where his wife had pledged to offer prayers once his CBI case was decided In Dec 1983 he had been acquitted of all charges. But this visit was not to be. Without second thought and still not fully recovered he left for Amritsar and that was last he saw his Dehra Dun home which he had planned to spend a peaceful retirement in pursuit prayer and meditation. At Amritsar, he got fully involved in setting up the defenses against Government attack on the Golden Temple complex. He had to plan his defenses such that they were inconspicuous because the pilgrims' movement to the Golden Temple and around it had to remain unhindered.
At the Same time, the defenses had to be very effective. He was in his element now. In the service of his community he did not mind giving up his life. He had always had a love for warfare and thought of death in battle a privilege. Perhaps he had a hidden desire to die fighting and in the holy presence of our Gurus. What better place then, than the Akal Takhat and the close proximity of Harmandir Sahib and in the service of his community. Tirelessly he worked against time with the prayer of Guru Gobind Singh on lips "Deh Shiva Bar Mohe" In the past, whenever in war, he always offered this prayer. Being an Army General he must have been very well aware of the odd against him. Re had less than 200 young Khalsa youth to help him. Though these were no ordinary youth.They were highly motivated, dedicated to the cause and each one resolved to fight to the last when the time came Yet he knew that with this small band, and hardly any resources with which to resist the might of the Indian Army, he might surely be overwhelmed. In the interest of the Sikh cause, he did suggest to Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwale to leave the Akal Takhat and seek refuge outside the country to carry on the struggle. But how could the head of Damdami Taksal accept such a suggestion however practical it may have appeared. Perhaps Indira to knew and had calculated on this. When the time came, he would prefer sacrifice and martyrdom in the footsteps of Baba Deep Singh. Here was combination of two great traditions.
One, the head of the great Damdami Takhsal and another a descendent of Bhai Mehtab Singh who had at this very place slashed off the head of vile Massa Rangar and carried it on his spear charging through the bewildered soldiers of the Nawab 250 years earlier. In the meanwhile, the political situation grew worse Indira Gandhi was playing her cards as per the game plan. Hindu feelings against Sikh throughout the country had been sufficiently aroused to condone any action against Sikhs including an assault on the Golden Temple. Commandos had been rehearsed for months at Chakkratta. Come June 1984 and it was time to call in the army and administer the 'coupe de grace'. The army leader had been carefully selected, Lt Gen R.S. Dayal though the Chief of Staff to Gen Sunderji the Army Commander in charge of the operation was yet given greater coverage by the Govt. dominated media to show that the Army Sikh officers even at the highest level approved on the Golden Temple. Major Gen K.S.Brar, a Sikh only in name, clean shaven, married to an anglo-Indian who smoked and drank and cared not for Sikhism, these two were orchestrated as the leaders of the attack. Giani Zail Singh who signed the papers for army action was the President of the country. He later denied that he knew about army action.On June 1 and June 2 Gen Brar himself went to asses the defenses of the temple dressed as a pilgrim and convinced his superiors the operation would take only six hours. On June 3 at 9:30 a.m. Punjab, Amritsar was sealed off and no movement of people allowed into the Golden Temple or out of it. At 8:30 a.m. that day Gen Shabeg Singh had literally forced his mother, wife, sister-in-law and nephew to leave the complex and go to the village. They had come there to offer prayers on the Shaheedi Gurupurab of Guru Arjun Dev which fell on June 4 and make arrangements for the annual 'Chownki' which pro ceeds from Harmandir Sahib to Gurusar the Gurdwara of guru Hargobind Sahib. The Chownki (party carrying the Guru Granth Sahib) halts at village Khiala which is on the way. Soft drinks, tea and snacks are served to everyone and this duty had been performed by Pritam Kaur, General Shabeg Singh's mother since many, many years. Even if she was alone, she made sure arrangements for the Chowmki's were made by the village folks
At Harmandir Sahib, thousands of pilgrims who had come for the annual occasion could not leave before 9:30 a.m. and were trapped, many thousands would lose their lives in the massacre that was about to be unleashed by the power-hungry Indira and her stooges. Sikhs would be presented with another group of martyrs. The last chapter in the lives of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Bhai Amrik Singh and Gen Shaheg Singh along with those valiant youth who fought for the honor of Golden Temple and the Sikhs was about to close. So too would be lost the lives of thousands of innocent pilgrims while those spared would rot in camps and prisons of the Indian Govt. for many years. Yet a new chapter in the history of the Sikhs was about to begin. Ever since Blue Star, tens of thousands of Sikh youth have lost their lives in the struggle to achieve an autonomous state, a land which the Sikhs can call their own.Source: 'Various Authenticated Websites'
What is the Shri Akal Takht?
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| Shri Akal Takht |
The Akal Takht is an impressive building that sits directly in front of the causeway leading to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, India. The Akal Takhat was founded by Guru Hargobind on June 15, 1606 (now celebrated on 2 July) and was established as the place from which the spiritual and temporal concerns of the Sikh community could be acted upon.
It stood as a symbol of political bulwark against the Mughal Emperors in the 17th and 18th century. Various attacks on the Akal Takhat and Harimandir Sahib have been led in past by Ahmed Shah Abdali and Massa Rangar in the 18 century. On June 4, 1984, the Indian Army did more than just damage the outer facade of the Akal Takhat, they destroyed the sancitity of the Akal Takht with tanks and reduced it to rubble, while attempting to take out Sikh militants in a controversial military operation known as Operation Bluestar.
History
he Akal Takht was begun by the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind Ji as a symbol for political sovereignty of Sikhs. It stood as a symbol of political and military resistance against the tyranny and cruelity of the rulers the 17th and 18th century. In the 18th century, Ahmed Shah Abdali led a series of attacks on the Akal Takht and Harmandir Sahib.
On June 4, 1984, the Akal Takht building was damaged during Operation Bluestar launched by the Indian Army on orders of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to evict a group of armed Sikh terrorists who had fortified the buildings and were posing a threat to peace and harmony in Punjab at the time. The Akal Takht was founded by Guru Hargobind on June 15, 1606 (now celebrated on 2 July) and was established as the place from which the spiritual and temporal concerns of the Sikh people could be acted upon.
It stood as a symbol of political bulwark against the Mughal Emperors in the 17th and 18th century. Various attacks on the Akal Takhat and Harimandir Sahib have been led in past by Ahmed Shah Abdali and Massa Rangar in the 18 century. On June 4, 1984, the Akal Takht was badly damaged and literally reduced to rubble when the Indian Army attempted to take out Sikh militants in a military operation known as Operation Bluestar.
It is the most supreme of all the Takhats. There are four other takhats established by the panth (Religion) during the last century:
- Keshgarh Sahib (Anandpur)
- Patna Sahib
- Hazur Sahib
- Damdama Sahib
Often, Amritsar is considered a takht.
The Jathedar of the Akal Takhat is the highest spokesperson of the Sikh religion and is meant to be the supreme leader without control or influence from any outside, politically motivated sources.
Khande-Bate-Dee-Pahul or the initiation with the sword, initiated by Guru Gobind Singh, continues to be routinely performed at the Akal Takht. Hari Singh Nalwa, a General under Maharaja Ranjit Singh the leader of the Sikh Kingdom, wished to make the Akal Takht resplendent with gold and had donated a part of his wealth for this purpose
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| Golden Temple (main building) Complex with Akal Takht Sahib. More Reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akal_Takht |
Shri Akal Takht during and after Operation Blue Star
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| Traces of old lime plaster, with painted Mughal-style floral motifs, inside the Akal Takht. This may relate to the original plinth of Guru Hargobind's time. |
The Sikh Contribution to Democratic India
During India's struggle for independence, Sikhs fought against the British at great personal cost. In the successful fight for independence, 3,697 Sikhs were hanged, killed or imprisoned for life, versus 1,074 non-Sikhs.
When India was granted independence and partitioned in 1947, massive populations of Muslims and Hindus were given their own geographic nation. The hard-working and hard-fighting Sikhs decided to join with predominantly Hindu India and put their faith in the Indian government to protect their interests.
After receiving such firm and solemn promises in clear and unambiguous terms from the Congress Party leaders, Sikhs decided to throw in their lot with India and did not press the British government for an independent Sikh state. They had wholeheartedly and vigorously supported the freedom struggle and suffered greatly for the cause.
Promises of religious freedom and self-determination made to them by Mahatma Gandhi and Mr. Nehru were never fulfilled.
No sooner had the country achieved independence when all past promises, declarations and assurances made to the Sikhs, and the sacrifices made by the Sikhs were forgotten.
With the partition of India to form the Moslem state of Pakistan, 60% of the agriculturally developed lands of the Sikhs went to Pakistan and the Sikhs migrated to Indian Punjab to make their new homes on barren land. Through their skill and industry, this land was transformed by a "green revolution" and now provides 60% of the food supply for all of India, including 70% of all the wheat and 50% of the rice.
"It was the Sikhs who helped spawn the "green revolution" in agriculture- the single most stunning accomplishment of India's independent years." Christian Science Monitor. 6/18/84
"Industrious and ambitious, the Sikhs have turned Punjab, one of the few areas in which they form a majority, into a model of agricultural efficiency, thereby helping make India self-sufficient in wheat." Time Magazine, 6/18/84
Throughout their history, Sikhs have earned great distinction by standing in defense of the rights of other religious peoples, notably the Hindus. Historically, thousands of Sikhs gave their lives to protect the nonviolent Hindus against the abuse of the ruthless Moguls who forcibly imposed Islam upon India for several centuries. At the time of the fight for independence from Great Britain, 60% of the military was composed of Sikhs although they were only 2% of the total population.
The Sikhs are a people who value human rights, who have defended India against scores of invaders throughout the centuries, and who contribute in all respects to the independent nation of India.
