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Sikh History & Heritage
1984 Commemorative Articles Operation Bluestar
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<blockquote data-quote="spnadmin" data-source="post: 147373" data-attributes="member: 35"><p><strong>From 'Sikhs: Past & Present' journal of Sikh Studies.</strong></p><p> <strong></strong></p><p><strong>For details, read: SIKH HISTORY in 10 Volumes by Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer (It is in volume 7).</strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Attack on Darbar Sahib (Part 2)</strong></p><p> </p><p>Events Realting to Attack on Darbar Sahib</p><p> On the 2nd of June 1984, the Indian Army sealed all the international border, from Ganganagar in Rajasthan to Jammu; several army tanks, a large number of army trucks and Armed Personnel Carriers (A.P.C.) as well as other Army vehicles were seen everwhere in the Punjab and on the international border.</p><p></p><p> The same day, formalities of takeover by the Army were performed; the Army set up Command Headquarter in the Police Kotwali (about 300 metres from Darbar Sahib), the ‘Armed Group’ of the 350 Infantry Brigade, which was to guide ‘Operation’ (it was to act under the command of K.S. Brar), was stationed here, at the top floor of this building; and this office was direct on line with the Central Government’s Control Room at Delhi which was under the over all command of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi assisted by Arun Nehru, Arun Nehru, and K. P. Sinh Deo (Deputy Defence Minister).[1] The same day, R. S. Dayal[2] (Chief of Staff Western Command) took over as the Advisor Security[3] to te Governor of the Punjab; and, with this all the telecommunication, postal services and rail and bus transport was taken over or suspended by the Army; the Punjab Police had now virtually no role as they were to obeyorders of the Army; by the evening the Army had been posted on all the key positions: the railway stations, bus stands and all the transport, telecommunication towers and their offices, bridges and roads, canals and rivers, administration and public services; now all the infra structure in the Punjab was under the command of the Indian Army; all the foreign citizens were ordered to leave the Punjab.</p><p> </p><p> Gurdev Singh Refuses to sign orders to attack Darbar Sahib: Before formally launching th attack the Army needed formal signatures from the Deputy Commissioner (D.C.) of Amritsar; at that time Gurdev Singh was the D.C. and he refused to sign permission/orders to attack Darbar Sahib; as a result he was replaced by Rameshinder Singh (whom Parkash Badal appointed as the Chief Secretary in his Government); Gurdev Singh was sent on leave but even during this ‘holidays period’ he was to remain under strict survielence of the Army; Rameshinder Singh immediately signed orders to attack.</p><p></p><p> As per planning the attack was to begin early in the morning of the 4th of June 1984; frontal attack on Akal Takht was to be made by specially trained commandos from 1st battalion, the Parachute Regiment, wearing black denims with bullet-proof vests; they were to be followed by the 10 Guards and the 12 Bihar Corps; they were to be assisted by 26 Madras and 9 Kumaon. The 12 Bihar Corps had already taken positions around Darbar Sahib, right in the morning of the 3rd of June. As per planning the whole ‘Operation’ was to be completed in thirty-six hours; hence, on the 3rd of June, at 9 p.m., a thirty-six hour curfew (later extended for another thirty-six hours) was imposed in the whole of the Punjab; and, in and around Darbar Sahib, electricity and water services were disconnected.</p><p></p><p> On the other hand, when the electricity was disconnected General Subeg Singh understood that the attack would begin within hours so he assigned duties to the defending Sikh volunteers whose number was between 100 and 125; they took positions in the basement of Akal Takht, in and around the parikarma (periphery) of the Ghanta Ghar (clock tower) gate of Darbar Sahib; the Babars took positons at the top of Ramgarhia Bunga (two eighteen century towers on the corner of Darbar Sahib) and on the water tank (in side Guru Ram Dass Saran).</p><p> </p><p>The Final Attack Begins</p><p> In the morning of the 4th of June, the Army was assigned job like this: (a) North-west zone of Darbar Sahib Complex (Ghant Ghar to Akal Takht) = one Infantry Unit, one Para Commandos, one Company Specail Border Force [S.S.F.] (b) Darbar Sahib itself = one unit (c) South-east zone of Darbar Sahib Complex (Aata Mandi, Sikh Reference Library, Baba Atal, Manji Sahib) = one Infantry Batallion (d) reserve for all these three = one Infantry Batallion (e) siege of Darbar Sahib = one Infantry Batallion.</p><p></p><p> On that day, there were more than five thousand Sikhs inside Darbar Sahib; it being the anniversary of the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Sahib, people from the whole of the Punjab and even other places had gone there to make obeisance; a thousand strong jatha, which was to court arrest the following day had also arrived; besides some Bangla Deshis, who were to board a train to Pakistan the following day, had also gone to Darbar Sahib for meals and night stay.</p><p></p><p> On the night of the 3rd of June the Army had forcibly taken over ‘Braham Buta Akhara’ and ‘Temple View Hotel’; and these were, later used for Operation.</p><p></p><p> At 4.40 a.m. the final assault of ‘Operation’ began; first of all the Army attacked the water tank (inside Guru Ram Dass Saran) and the ‘Ramgarhia Bunga’ (two towers of the eighteenth century) with 106 M.M. cannon, 25 pounder 3.7 inch Howitzers guns, mortars and 3.7 Howell guns, LMG and MMG guns;[4] which blasted the water tank and the upper part of the Ramgarhia Bunga, killing all those who had taken positions there; their bodies fling off in pieces all around; thus this front was won by the Army without any battle. Bombardment of the Army was so savage that not a single person, including the defending miltants and the pilgrims staying there to spend night, survived this savage attack.</p><p></p><p> After this, 50 specially trained commandos of the ‘10 Guard’ unit moved towards ‘Ghanta Ghar entrance’, most of them were immediately killed and the rest were wounded (among the wounded was also Jasbir Raina who, a day earlier, had gone to Darbar Sahib to collect sensitive information; later one of his legs had to be amputed; he remained handicapped for the rest of his life). When the first batch of the commandos was eliminated Para Commandos and the S.S.F. took their place to move towards Akal Takht. Hundreds of soldiers tried to reach Akal Takht so that they should throw poisonous gas cannisters and ‘stun bombs’ inside the Takht building to kill or make unconscious the Sikhs present there; but none of them could reach proceed even a few metres, all of them were killed; some of them tried to proceed by crawling but the too were killed by a machinegun which the Sikh fighters had set on the floor; b noon hundreds of soldiers had been killed and there was not even 10% success; the whole passage between Ghanta Ghar and Akal Takht was full of deadbodies of the soldiers of the India Army. After this the Army began throwing gas shells but as the direction of the wind was towards the Army, it rather boomranged and harmed the Army.</p><p></p><p> Later, in the evening the Army succeeded in reaching the roof of the periphery from where it began firing and now a battle began for the occupation of the rooms adjascent to the Ghanta Ghar entrance; this pitched battle took lives of hundreds of soldiers and also the Sikhs who had taken positions there.</p><p></p><p> Though the Army had achieved no success, no head way, to advance towards Akal Takht still Lt Genenral K.C. Padda, along with his Subedar Major and 30 specially trained commandos tried to adnance but all of them were killed. By this time the Army had occupied the building agjascent to Thara Sahib (a few metres from Akal Takht) and began shellin Akal Takht and throwing gas shells; and with ths a unit of the S.S.F. tried to advance; they too were killed in minutes; thus the Indian soldiers had achieved nothing except deaths.</p><p></p><p> On the side of the Guru Ran Das Saran too, the Indian Army began its operation; as the main gate was locked, the Army tried to break it but the guns could not succeed in getting it opened; hence tanks had to be brought in to break the gate; but when, after getting the gate opened, the Army tried to proceed further, gun fire from Baba Atal, Langar building and the Saran blocked its advance; now the tanks began continuous firing, but in spite of this the 26 Madras battalion could not get much success.</p><p></p><p> When this front too was not successful, two Companies of the 9 Garhwal were sent to attack the Ghanta Ghar of Aata Mandi side; had they achieved success they were to be followed by the 15 Kumaon which had been, earlier, reserved for taking control of Guru Ram Das Saran, Akal Rest House, Teja Singh Samundari Hall and the office of the Akali Dal; but as the 9 Garhwal could not achieve its target the 15 Kumaon was sent to help it.</p><p></p><p> After a pitched battle and loss of hundreds of soldiers, the India Army finally succeded in occupying the Saran on the 5th of June i.e. the second day of the battle; after this the soldiers, under the command of Lt General Israr Khan, began throwinf grenades in all the rooms of the Saran where the pilgrims had been staying. Early in the morning of the 6th of June (at about 1.30 a.m.) the 9 Garhwal had succeeded in occupying the Sikh Reference Library and a few rooms around it. On the Akal Takht front, 15 Kumaon, under the command of N.C. Pant was engaged in heavy fighting. On the 6th of June, at about 2 a.m., the position was:</p><p> </p><p>Though the 10 Guards had occupied northeren Ghanta Ghar but it had lost hundreds of soldiers; and the soldiers were still becoming victims of firing.</p><p>26 Madras had reached in the southern gate.</p><p>9 Garhwal Rifles had occupied the Sikh Reference Library.</p><p>‘One Para Commando’ Force and the ‘S.S.F.’ had lost several soldiers but they have not achieved even minor success to advance towards Akal Takht.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Deployment of tanks to blow out Akal Takht</p><p> By this time (at 2 a.m. on the 6th of June), Brigadier A. K. Diwan (nickname Chikki) reached at the Sikh Reference Library; K. S. Brar assigned him command of 26 Mardras, 15 Kumaon and 9 Garhwal and directed them to target only Akal Takht; with in half an hour this group began its action; hundreds of shells were fired but the Indian Army could not procced even centimetre; and the losses of the Army were very high. At this Diwan and Brar decided to bring in tanks;[5] Brar contacted Sunderji, the Chief of ‘Blue Star Operation’ on walkie-takie and the got sought consent of Indira Gandhi through General Vaidya,[6] the Chief of the Indian Army. Between 2.30 and 3 a.m. the first tank was brought from the side of Guru Ram Das Saran; it was 38 Ton Vijayanta Tank fitted with 105 mm heavy guns. This tank entered the periphery of Darbar Sahib and threw search light at Akal Takht and began heavy shelling with 105 mm guns; it was supported by guns of the Army units which had taken positions on the roofs of the buildings of both Ghanta Ghars but, this action cold not contine long because the wires of the bulb of the search light got fused after one minute;[7] now the Army brought in another tank; this too met the same fate; then a third tank was also brought in. At that time it was dark and the helicopter helped the Army in identifying the targets for attack. “The helicopters hovered above and contined to fire from above. Some of the helicopters also guided the firing squads of the Army by making a circle of light around the targets. Immediately after these circles, the cannon ***** would land on the targets causing havoc. We saw a large number of boys blown to pieces.” [8]</p><p></p><p> The tanks could not give the expected results; now Polish built eight-wheeled mechanised carriers ’Armoured Personnel Carriers’ (A.P.C.) and cannons were brought in; to bring them into the periphery the stairs of the entrance to the periphery had to be blasted with the help of another tank because the Scott could not have crossed these stairs.</p><p></p><p> By this time, shells of 84 mm of Carl Gustav (of Sweden) guns were being showered of Akal Takht. Now some commandos of the 15 Kumaon, seated in an A.P.C., tried to proceed towards Akal Takht; all this time rockets of the Army continued shelling Akal Takht so that the Army may get the shield from the attacks by the militants; but, then an anti-tank shell, thrown by the miltants, fell upo this A.P.C. and it got jammed there and then.</p><p></p><p> Now, Brar got consent of Indira Gandhi to totally blast Akal Takht building with the help of he tanks; at 5.10 a.m. Indira Gandhi called General A. S. Vaidya, the Chief Commander of Army, and after getting his nod she gave permission for this action too she had not slept for the past two days); having got ‘go ahead’ from Vaidya and Indira Gandhi, at 5.21. a.m. the army began constant shelling of the Takht building; within hours one third of the building had disappeared but still there was heavy confrontation. From the other side, at about 5.45 a.m., Major B.K. Mishra of the Commando Company, succeeded in reaching near the stairs of the Akal Takht; the miltants had in fact not attacked them deliberately and allowed them to proceed and when they reached there all of them were killed. By 6.20 a.m. the Indian Army had achieved nothing but deaths and destruction.</p><p></p><p> At about 6.20 a.m. Subedar K.P. Raman Ravi and some of his commandos too reached near the Akal Takht; the miltants let them too to continue moving ahead, but when the reached the stairs, the miltants pounced upon them and took them in the basement of Akal Takht and tied a bomb on the body of Raman and blasted his body; the rest too were killed.</p><p></p><p> At 7.30 a.m. the Indian army again began shelling the building of Akal Takht; about 80 squash-head sheels of 105 mm were fired at the Takht; this action continued till 11.30 a.m.; but, in spite of this the Army could not reach near the Takht. In the night, the biggest battle began; to quote an eye witness: “At about 9 p.m. on 6 June, entire city of Amritsar was shaken by powerful shelling, mortar explosion and machine-gun fire. The big battle had begun. Half the city was on rooftos watching the battle. Tracer bullets and flares lit up the crescent moonsky. The explosion at Golden Temple rattled doors and windows miles away. While the battle was raging, the state run radio claimed taht the city was ‘calm’.[9]In spite of using tanks, helicopters, and the latest top-most world renowned guns, the mighty Indian Army had not been able to reach near the building of Akal Takht. According to one souce[10] 15000 troops took part in assault, 35000 standing by to put down an internal rebellion; it futher says: ‘Not even in the more ruthless days of the empire had the army been used to storm such an important religious building’; besides he number of the defenders was not more one hundred and fifty; and such a small number of defenders of the Darbar Sahib did not allow the mighty Army to win a few hectares of land for four long days; it is perhaps the greatest battle of the world history.</p><p></p><p> Another historical fact of this battle is that in this battle the Indian Army used more ammunition than it had used at any front, in the earlier wars (1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak War and 1962 Indo-China war) by the Indian Army; probably, in no battle, for the occupation of one small Complex, so much ammunition was used throughout the history of the battles of the world. It was fifth historic unequal battle in the history of India in which, on one side there were about one hundered defenders against fifteen thousand strong force (with another fifty thousand reserve forces as stand by); the former had just a small quantity of guns whereas the invaders had helicopters, tanks, most modern army vehicles, guns, canons, latest ammunition with endless quantity; the defenders fought without eating or drinking any thing whereas the invading army had full supplies of everything; it was unequal battle perhaps the greatest event of military history of the world.[11]</p><p></p><p> On the midnight between the 6th and 7th of June, Baba Bhingranwala, Bhai Amrik Singh, Thara Singh and about a dozen more Sikhs who were present in the basement of Akal Takht discussed the whole situation; they realised that in the three days’ battle, though the Indian Army has suffered colossal loss but on the other hand the bulding of Akal Takht has been badly damged; the sight is awesome; they realised that they don’t have much ammunition left with them and they won’t be able to resisted for more than a few hours; hence it was resolved that those who can escape from that place must do so; when some one suggested Bhindranwala that he too should escape he immediately retorted: ‘I have to embrace martyrdom’ and Bhai Amrik Singh too asserted that he won’t leave. After this, about a dozen Sikhs, including Thara Singh etc, crossed to the adjoining buildings (at that time the building of Takht was surrounded by residential buildings) and then escaped through narrow lanes with the help of some employees of the S.G.P.C.</p><p></p><p>The next morning, on the 7th of June, at about 7 a.m. Baba Jarnail Singh and Bhai Amrik Singh recited their nitnaym (daily prayer) and came out of the basement; Baba Jarnail Singh took position on the backside of the flagpole and began fighting; within some minutes a volley of bullets hit him and he was killed and so was Bhai Amrik Singh. Now, the major leaders of the Sikh miltants were no more, the great General Subeg Singh had already embraced martyrdom a day before.</p><p></p><p> Even after this the battle continued till noon and when all the ammunition was finished, they too embraced death. It was only in the forenoon hours of the 7th of June when there was no firing from the side of Akal Takht for a long time; the Indian Army realised that all the miltants must have been dead and then they moved towards Akal Takht.</p><p></p><p>When the Army (26 Madras Regiment) entered the basement of the Takht, it found only 38 bodies of the defenders of the Takht; Bhindranwala’s body was found near the flag-pole. It was shameful on the part of the Indian Army that they tied the deadbody of General Subeg Singh and dragged it just to express their anger against him. Tully has reported that he had seen pictures of Subeg Singh’s deadbody which show that ropes had been tied around his arms and he was dragged before he died.[12] Mark Tully is wrong in saying that Subeg Singh was caught alive and tortured to death; in fact, he was already dead and it was the deadbody that had been dragged).</p><p> </p><p>Greatest Battle of Resistance in History</p><p>About fifty thousand soldiers of the Indian Army, known as the ‘third greatest army of the world’, with all its three wings (Army, Air Force and Navy), fully equipped with helicopters, tanks, cannons, guns and unlimited ammunition as well as all sorts of provisions, and with endless supply of everything and other facilities, attacked Darbar Sahib Complex to capture just 444 square feet area; and, on the other hand, just a few ordinary Sikhs, between 40 and 100 as per different estimates, who did not have even proper training to fire guns, and had nothing to eat or drink and no back up or supply for all the period of battle, without having a wink of sleep for more than three long days, resisted such a mammoth army for more than three days; hence this was perhaps the greatest battle of resistance in the history of the world.</p><p> </p><p>Devestations inside and around Darbar Sahib</p><p> After the battle was over, though the Kotha Sahib (where Guru Granth Sahib was kept every night) most of the the building of Akal Takht had turned into rebbles, so were the water tank (in Guru Ram Das Saran) as well as the top of the historic Ramgarhia Bungas. To quote an eye witness: “I saw these building two weeks after the terrific bombardment which were razed to the ground. I was shocked to se the extant of cruelty and brutality committed by the Army on its own people. Perhaps the Army had treated the innocent Sikh victims as enemies. General Brar when addressing the Army Jawans, before the attack had used the word ‘enemy’ for those inside the Complex...”[13]</p><p></p><p> A day after the Army finally occupied Akal Takht, it produced Kirpal Singh, the caretaker of the Takth before TV, and the latter announced that the Kotha Sahib was perfectly OK; he did not say that the rest of the building had been fully destroyed; the man who was to act as the ‘custodian’ of the building had lied; even if he lied in order to save his life, he had exhibited his cowardice; besides this was also an act of sacrilege of the Takht and the office he was holding.</p><p></p><p> By the time the Army had taken over the Sikhs had been performing services at Darbar Sahib; though there were two of them and they continued it one after the other; but, when the Army occupied it, it killed the person who was performing services and stopped recitation of Guru Granth Sahib; it was, thus, suspended for the first time in the past 222 years. The Army restarted service on the 8th of June but no Sikh was allowed to enter Darbar Sahib for 21 days (on the 25th of June 1984 only a few persons were allowed entry, for a short time; and, it was sealed again when the Army observed anger and disdain for the Army, on the faces and in the eyes of even those selected visitors); it remained under the occupation of the Army up to September 1984.</p><p></p><p> Not only Akal Takht, Ramgarhia Bunga and watertank but even the Darbar Sahib had been badly damaged; there were more than 350 signs of bullets on this building.[14] When the India Army occupied Akal Takht, two Sikhs, one of whom was blind of both eyes, were still there in side the central hall (wrongly known as centro centrum) of Darbar Sahib; they were attending Guru Granth Sahib; the Indian Army entered this place and shot at the Sikh reading Scripture;[15] later he was identified as Bhai Awtar Singh of Purowal.[16]</p><p></p><p> After this the Army took possession of even money and golden ornaments, which were the offerings made by the visitors; (the army had also taken possession of the money found in the S.G.P.C. treasury); total gold carried away by the Army, from the whole of the Darbar Sahib Complex, was about four quintals of gold as well as some diamonds; besides the Army also took away a large number of other valuable items including TV sets, VCRs, refrigerators and other electronic gadgets. Several soldiers also took away money, watches, golden ornaments snatched by them from the Sikhs arrested by them. Per chance the Army did not know about the Tosha Khana (the treasure house) of Darbar Sahib which is on the first floor of the Darshani Deodi, otherwise it (the Army) would have taken away this too; in this Tosha Khana there are kept precious things, gold and diamonds and other rare relics worth billions of rupees; howver, during the Army fire a precious canopy, studded with diamonds, which had been presented by the Chief of Hyderabad State, in early nineteenth century, had already been burn.</p><p></p><p> To quote a London newspaper: “Outside the Golden Temple scores of buildings have been reduced to rubble. Flies outnumber people who stand around, in mournful groups, ouside their damaged homes. Foreign reporters have not been allowed inside the inner walled city which has been badly damged by shell-fire. Four of the seven bazaars have been hit by shells and partly destroyed.”[17]</p><p></p><p> To quote another newspaper: “Hundreds of houses and shops surrounding the Temple, the hub of the city, were reduced to rubble in the crossfire.[18] As a conservative estimate, more than 500 buildings have been destroyed. Many of those who died are believed to have been indoors when the ancient building collapsed under fire. Bodies are still being dug from debris. All the bodies can not be recovered till the entire area is demolished. The destruction has left nearly 30000 people homeless.”[19]</p><p></p><p> According to the correspomdence of the Daily Telegraph (London): “The Akal Takht looks like it has been bombed. It looks like a building in Berlin after War. Everything in the Complex has been riddles with bullets and there was still a stench of death in the air.”[20]</p><p> (Stress, in bold letters, is mine – author).</p><p> </p><p>Weapons exhibited by the Army </p><p> A few days later, the Indian Army released pictures and made an exhibition of several weapons claiming that those had been recovered from Darbar Sahib; when the media questioned that most of the weapon displayed by the army were brand new and shining, the officials had no answer; the truth is that all these were brought by the Army in order to defame the Sikh militants; had those been the weapons belonging to the militants then at least some of these must have been damaged by heavy bombardment. Moreover, for the past many months there was complete blockade of Darbar Sahib by para-miltary forces; hence it was not possible to smuggle them into the Complex without the consent or collaboration of the Government or the forces. Furthermorethe total number of the weapns exhibited was not more than 250; commenting on this General Jagjit Arora (of Bangadesh fame) said: ‘Not more than 250 persons who would have used them.’</p><p> </p><p>How Many Persons died?</p><p> The Government India’s ‘White Paper’ (which is just a bundle of lies) calims that 83 soldiers[21] and 493 Sikhs were killed in the Army attack; it also mentions that 59 persons died or were injured in other Gurdwaras[22]. It is shame that a Government is not willing to tell truth about the casualties. The non-offcial accounts mention the number of the casualties between three and eight thousand;[23] according to Sarna 1208 soldiers and 122 Sikh defenders were killed; besides the Army killed 3228 Sikh pilgrims too; the Government claimed that 287 soldiers and 121 Sikhs were wounded, whereas according to Sarna, the number of the wounded soldiers was around 3000, 12 Sikh defenders and 1526 Sikh pilgrims and Bangadeshis, who were staying there to board train the following day; similarly, according to this source, the number of Sikhs arrested (mostly pilgrims) was 1592 from Darbar Sahib[24] and 796 from other Gurdwaras and 2324 from other places in the Punjab (a total of 4712).[25]</p><p></p><p> The number of the Sikhs killed was so high due t two reasons: 1. “The army which had suffered a heavy toll in the three days battle went berserk and killed every Sikh to be found iside the temple complex. They were hauled out of the rooms, brough to corridors in the circumference of the temple and with hands tied to their backs[26] were shot in cold blood. Among the victims were many old men, women and children.”[27] 2. “The Army may be operating under ‘take-no-prioners’ order.”[28]In other words the Indian Army had perpetrated brutalities on innocent persons, several of them were children. It belies the statement by K. Sunderji, the Chief of this ‘Operation’ who said that “We went inside the premises of Golden Temple Complex with humility in our hearts and prayers on our lips”[29]; whereas the truth is that having suffered heavy losses the Indian Army behaved even ordinary Sikh passengers as a savage animal who would pounce upon a lamb.</p><p></p><p> </p><p>Honouring Brutal Sodiers</p><p> During the attack on Darbar Sahib, the Indian Army had behaved as brutal enenmies; no warnings, no attempts to save inncent pilgrims, indiscrimate killings, inhuman treatment with the dead, not handing over the dead to their relatives, keeping no records of the dead, buring of bodies without identification, cremating the deadbodies by puring kerosene oil and petrol on them, perpetrating atrocites on the arrested Sikhs by keeping them in small cells without water and thus killing several of them, killing those prisoners who begged for water (this being the hottest month of the years), detaining babies and children (for months) were among the great achievents of the Indian Army etc were the ‘achievements’ of the India Army. What the Indian Army did had no parallels in the world history; most ferocious invaders had not behaved in such savage manner; still the Indian Government presented these inhuman soldiers and generals with gallantry Awards, honours, decoration strips, promotions etc for thir ‘heroic acts’; this special ‘Award Ceremony’ was performed on the 10th of July 1985. It is amazing to note that the Indian Government had not honoured the brave soldiers who had performed acts of chivalry during the battles of 1962, 1965 and 1971; honouring of those who had perpetrated atriciites on its own people and had crossed all the limits of inhuman acts was shocking and shameful; however it exposed the Sikh-hatred of the Indian regime; further shocking is that these ‘Awards’ were given by Sikh looking President; so devoid of self respect he was!</p><p> </p><p>Why This Day was especially Chosen?</p><p> The Indian Government knew that the 4th of June 1984 was the anniversary of the martyrsdom of Guru Arjan Sahib, the founder of the Darbar Sahib (and son of the founder of the city of Amritsar) hence thousands of Sikhs, from various parts of the Punjab and other places, were sure to visit to make obeisance; besided an Akali agitation was also going on; that day a 1000 stong jatha of Nachhatar Singh Bhalwan had also arrived to court arrest on the following day; the Government chose this day especially so as to show the world that the number of the miltants was so high. Even if we accept that the Army did not know about these two points still, on the first of June, several senior officials of the Army had taken a round of the Darbar Sahib on their ‘spying mission’ and had observed that the number of the visitor there was always in thousands; they could have given an ultimatum to the visitors to come out (the Army could arrest and invesitagate their credentials to separate militants from ordinary visitors); no such untimatum was given, no announcement was made, no offer to surrender was made; on the other hand there is ample evidence that those who surrendered were indiscriminately killed by the Army because did not want arrests; hence liquidations. There is ample evidence that the soldiers went around the Guru Ram Das Saran (hostel for the visitors) as well as in the rooms in the parikarama (periphery) and threw hand gernates in every room killimg whosoever was there;[30]more than one thousand Sikhs were killed in this action.</p><p></p><p> However, the Army did make some arrests too; it seems it had special instructions that Longowal Akali Dal and his associates should not be harmed (it is this point which creates doubt that they had at least some secret understanding with the Government; however, the letters, purported to have been written by them to and from the Government and the RAW, attributed to them are fake ones). When the Army had occupied the Saran, General Brar had aksed Lt. Colonel K. Bhaumik (who was the incharge of this part of the Darbar Sahib Complex) to find Longowal, Tohra and their associates; but, as there was no electricity, he had to face difficulty; however, the latter finally succeeded in finding them with the help of two Sikhs from among a group of those who had been arrested by the Army from Teja Singh Samundari Hall (the office of the S.G.P.C.). These two Sikhs, escorted by Major H.K. Palta, took the soldies to a room where Longowal, Tohra, Bibi Amarjeet Kaur, Bhan Singh, Balwant Ramuwalia etc were sitting; by this time Harminder Singh Sandhu and Manjit Singh (brother of Bhai Amrik Singh) too arrived there and begged the Akalis to tell the Army that they were their (Akalis’) associates; soon after the Army escorted all of them safely to the military vehicles and took them to their camp.</p><p></p><p> As mentioned earlier that the Army had arrested some Sikhs from the Teja Singh Samundari Hall; their number was about 350; all of them were brought out in open; with in a few minutes a grenade fell among this gathering killing more than 70 of them; Gurcharan Singh (who had master-minded the killing of Sodhi) too was one of these. The Army claimed that the grenade had been thrown by the militants but it seems to be wrong because by that time the Army had occupied all that zone; had this been an act by an miltant then the Army would have fired shots towards the direction from where the grenade had been thrown; but this was not done hence this was an act by the Army itself; moreover if it was thrown by the miltants then they would have targeted the soldiers.[31]</p><p> </p><p>Babies and Children sent to Jails</p><p> The Indian Army killed thousands of pilgrims who had gone to Darbar Sahib to make obeisance, some of them were carrying infants or were accompanied by small children; several children were killed when the soldiers threw handgernades in every room of the Darbar Sahib Complex but those who survived were taken into custody and sent to jails; tese children were aged between two and tweleve; 39 of thse children were kept in Ludhiana Jail; and these innocent babies who had been branded as ‘terrorists’ were graded in three categories: very dangerous, dangerous and potentially dangerous. These children had no one to attend, the leder (tweleve years old) would console the two years old babies; however they did get food (whatsoever its standard) in jail, every day there were tears and cries, the children begged to be sent home to their parents (they did not know that their parents had been killed and cremated by the Army).</p><p></p><p> As per the Indian Laws no child under the age f sixteen can be arrested or lodged in a jail or detained in a police station; this is categorically prohibited under the Children Act 1960 and the East Punjab Act 1976 but these acts were not applicable to the Sikh children; the Army, the jail authorities, the C.B.I. refused to bother for these Acts; when the Human Rights organisations brought this inhuman treatment of babies, the Government officials, including the Governor, they did not bother; perhaps for them the Sikhs had no human rights. Finally, when Kamla Devi Chattopadhya, a philanthropist social worker, approached the Supreme Court, these children were released; even here, the Jail Superintendent tried to ditch the Court order, some of them were transferred to Nabha Jail who could not released at that time and languished in jals for several years;[32] when released, some of them had become physical and mental wrecks.[33]</p><p> </p><p>Plundering of the Sikh Archieves</p><p> By the evening of the 5th of June 1984, the India Army had completely occupied the whole North-East (Braham Buta Akhara to Guru Ram Das Saran) and South-East (Guru Ram Das Saran to Ghanta Ghar on the South of Darbar Sahb, including Baba Atal); and it was from the roof of the Sikh Reference Library that the Indian Army was observing the scenario of Akal Takht. At that time the Library was locked; the Indian Army broke open the lock and took possession of it. On the 7th of June, when the Army had occupied Akal Takht too, it ordered 200 boxes in which all the precious and rare books, manuscripts, relics, rare newspapers etc were packed in these boxes; besids there were hundreds of handwritten volumes of Guru Granth Sahib, some of which were as old as from seventeenth century, were also packed and taken away.[34] After this the wooden racks and newspapers of contemporary period were set on fire and, later, it announced that the Library caught fire in cross-firing; this fact was denied by Davinder Singh Duggal, in charge of the Library, who was present in the adjoining quarter, which was his residence. The Army took away the precious archieves with it which remained at Merrut Cantinement for some time; it was never returned to the Sikhs (at least up to the end of 2011). The Army carried away not only the Sikh Reference Library but also all the papers, account books, proceedings and other records of the S.G.P.C. and the Akali Dal and these too were never returned. Damage to the Sikh Museum too was enormous; 132 precious paintings had been ravaged by the bullets; besides the Army had captured the Central Sikh Museum (situated on the first floor of Clock Tower) also; from here too, the Army took away several precious items including some historical paintings, rare coins, picture albums, a rosary presented by Maharaja Daleep Singh and a hand embroidered picture of Guru Nanak presented by the famous Pakistani singer Malika Pukhraj and her daughter Tahira.</p><p></p><p> Later, on the 14th of June, Davinder Singh Duggal, who had been arrested on the 7th of June, from his residence in the Darbar Sahib Complex, was brought to the Library by the Army and asked to ‘take charge’ of the Library; when he said ‘where is the Library’ he was told that he had no option but to sign a typed receipt which said ‘I have taken charge of the Sikh Reference Library’; Duggal added a sentence ‘I have taken charge of the ashes of the Library’ and signed it.[35]</p><p> </p><p>Cremation of (insult to) the dead-bodies</p><p> The total loss of life in this Army attack was around than 6000, out of which more than 1200 were the soldiers of the Indian Army; funeral of the soldiers was conducted by their respective units. On the other hand, the authorities did not bother to identify or even to record the number of the casualties on the Sikh side. “When General Dyer killed people in Jallianwala Bagh, the dead bodies were given to theri relatives but strangely our own Army killed our own people and did not return the bodies to their relatives.”[36] To dispose off the deadbodies of the Sikhs the Army tried to enage first sme truck-cleaners and other labour but when they refused, the sweepers were engaged to carry the deadbodies to the cremation ground but as the bodies had been lying there for the past two or more days, hence decomposed and stinking; first the sweepers refused even to to touch them; finally, when the Army supplied them bottles of rum and big sum of money they agreed.[37] As most of the dead-bodies had become highly discomposed, when the sweepers carried them to the trucks, limbs fell down and flesh came into their hands; as a result they collected fallen limbs in turbans and dupattas (scarfs) of the dead Sikh, and put these pieces in garbage-carrying vessels, buckets and stretchers and loaded them into the garbage trollies; every where pieces of flesh and pools of blood, at places even ankle-deep congealed blood, created a grotesque scene. After this hen these bodies were taken to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital for post mortem; first doctors expressed their in ability to perfrom autopsy but when threatened of dire consequences they had to make formalties of post-mortem as an eye-wash as they faced big problem in performing; post-mortem of decomposed bodies; and, after this, these dead-bodies were again loaded in garbage trollies like dead animals and taken to the nearby Chatiwind Crematorium where these were burnt by pouring kerosene oil, diesel and petrol on them because there was not enough wood to burn them.[38] As the dead-bodies had been rottening for three days the stench of the decomosed bodies and their burning with kerosene oil remained in the air for several weeks.</p><p></p><p> To quote Chelanney: “Bodies were being brought in munciple garbage trucks round the clock since early 6 June; ‘we have been really busy; to ad to our woes, we don’t have enough wood to burn the dead, and we have been cremating them in heaps of twenty or more’, said a crematory official. Near the Golden Temple I saw an estimated 50 corpses in a rubbish lorry that had sewage sill smeared on its outer body. From the back of the grey truck, at least two masculine legs were sticking out and from the left one could see the hanging forehead and the long flowing hair on an apparently unturbanned Sikh. As I peeped into the truck from the back, I could see dead bodies of at least two women and a child. That night it was difficult to sleep. I kept thinking of the dead bodies.”[39]</p><p> According to a solider, some of the deadbodies of the Sikhs were even thrown into the rivers Raavi and Beas: “On the morning of June 6, the Golden Temple Complex was like a graveyard. Bodies lay all around in buildins, on the parkarma and in the sarovar. The Sun was shining and stench from bodies was becoming unbearable. Bidies of Jawans were identified and hand over to their respective regiments. I myself carried the bodies of three soldiers on my shoulders. Each regiment conducted the funeral rites of their various Jawans. The civilians, who died, about 1500 of them, were piled in trollies and carried away. A lot of them were thrown into the rivers. The battle was a tragic one. I could noteat anything. Food made me sick. I used to drink lots of rum and go to sleep.”[40]</p><p></p><p> This soldier’s confession of drinking of a lot of rum is confirmed by the fact that all of the Indian Army who joined attack on Darbar Sahib were give regular supply of whiskey; as per records of the Army Canteens in the Punjab, the Army bought seven hundred thousand bottles of rum, thrity thousand havles (of bottles) of whisky, sixty thousand halves of brandy and sixty thousand beer bottles. The soldiers were also supplied thousands of packs of cigarettes too; the soldiers were seen openly smoking in the Darbar Sahib complex.[41]</p><p> </p><p>The Hindus Celebrate Killings of the Sikhs</p><p> When the Army had taken full control of Darbar Sahib; it revealed the news to the local Hindus who had been serving the Army officials with tea, fruit, sweets and other refreshments since the 4th of June; the Army brought some senior Hindus to let them have a look at the deadbody of Baba Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala; after returning to their streets, these Hindu groups began dancing as if they had achieved their greatest victory of life; this was followed by distribution of sweets to the soldiers and the Hindus of the town; some Hindu woment went to the extent of performing worship of the Hindu Army officers; the Hindus celebrated this as a victory of the Hindu community over the Sikh nation; in fact the Army too had fought as if it was on war with the Sikhs as a nation and not the Sikh miltants or Khalistanis or Bhindranwala.</p><p> </p><p>Fanatic Hindu Politician Support Indira Gandhi’s Action</p><p> The attack on Darbar Sahib by Indira Gandhi was reacted to differently by different leaders; the R.S.S. chief Balasaheb Deoras,[42] Atal Bihari Vajpaee[43], the B.J.P. (its Executive even passed a reolution to this effect)[44], Lok Dal leader Chowdhry Charan Singh,[45] Janta Party leaders Madhu Dandvate,[46] Ram Krishan Hegde,[47] Ravinder Varma and Raj Narayan[48], former Prime Minister Morarji Desai and former Deputy Prime Minsiter Y.B. Chavan[49] and all other Hindu fundamentalists and even the C.P.I. and the C.P.M. (both the Communist Parties) supported Indira Gandhi’s attack;[50] none of them, however, tried to know the truth behind the attack and what had happened there at Amritsar. On the other hand, Janta Party President Chander Sheikhar[51] and another senior Janta leader Subramaniam Swamy,[52] Andhra Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao[53] strongly condemned the attack.</p><p> </p><p>International Press condemns Indira Gandhi</p><p> Tha attack on Darbar Sahib was condemned by the international media in strong words; to quote a few of them:</p><p> “Mughal emperors and British Governors alike tried military solutions to the Sikh problem and succeeded only in adding to the rolls of martyrs, chersished by the pround and prickly people. Sikhs also have long memories. They have never forgotten or forgiven the day in 1919 when General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire in the sacred city of Amirtsar and Mrs. Gandhi may well have cause to rue the day she did the same.” (R. H. Greenfield, in The Sunday Telegraph, dated 10.6.1984).</p><p></p><p> “While the impact of Indira Gandhi’s action cannot yet be measured, she can be sure of a heart-felt vote of thanks from the Hindus in the north-east.” (Michael Hamlyn, in The Times, dated 9.6.1984).</p><p> “Historical parallels may be dangerous, but last week’s killings in the Golden temple and the Amritsar massacre of 1919 hve some remarkable similarities.” (The Sunday Times, dated 10.6.1984).</p><p></p><p> “The 1984 battle of Golden Temple, like the 1919 Amritsar Massacre (Jallianwala Bagh), marks the beginning of a new potentially turbulent chapter in the Indian history. The chapter which opened with the 1919 massacre ended with the departure of the British. The new one is pnly ten days old, anmd no one can say how it will end.” (Robin Lusting, in The Observer, dated 17.6.1984).</p><p></p><p> From among foreign countries only Russia supported Indira Gandhi’s action and said that she had succeeded in crushing a U.S.A. inspired conspiracy.</p><p> It is widely believed that the Russian K.G.B. and military expertise was available to the Indian Army; even the Israeli Mossad and the British counter-insurgency experts had been consulted by the Indian Government; within previous few months, Gary Saxena and R.N. Kay, the two officers of the India secret service (RAW) made several trips to London to seek expertise.[54]</p><p> </p><p>Attack on another more than 74 Gurdwaras</p><p> Though the Indian Government declared that it wanted to ‘free Darbar Sahib of the terrorists’ but this was all lie, blatant lie; had this been so then what was the need of putting siege to so many Gurdwaras throughout the Punjab. The fact is that, along with the Darbar Sahib, there were seventy-four other Gurdwaras, thrity seven of them of historical significance, which were simultaneously stormed by the Indian troops on the pretext of ‘flushing the terrorists’. At all these places the Army killed scores of innocent Sikhs especially the youth.</p><p> At Patiala, the Indian Army put siege to the historical Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran; without any warning the Army began firing at the Gurdwara; after this it arrested all the Sikh youth whe had gone there to make obeisance, lined them up and killed them in cold blood; the killer soldiers asked them ‘Do you still want Khalistan?’ and shot them at point blank range through their temples. The Army accepted killing 20 Sikhs but as per the doctors, who held postmrtem of the dead, the number was 56.</p><p></p><p> At Chamkaur Sahib too the Indian Army put siege to the Gurdwara; no one allowed entering or coming out; on the 7th of June 1984, when an elderly, 70 years old, Sikh came out to answer the call of nature, he was shot dead in cold blood. Here too the Army showered the Gurdwara building with bullets, one could see several signs of them even on the 14th of June; at Chamkaur Sahib 14 Sikh youngmen were arrested.[55]</p><p></p><p> At Muktsar, the Army was still very aggressive; it put siege to the historical shrine Darbar Sahib; like Chamkaur here too no one allowed entering or coming out; the Army suddenly began firing at the Gurdwara; the vistors who had gone there to make obeisance could not have dreamt that the Army could attack that Gurdwara too as there had never been any miltant action in that town. In the firing by the Army several Sikhs were killed; the rest were arrested by the Army; the arrested were treated mercilessly; their hands and legs were tied with their turbans; they were kicked and hit with rifle buts. When a detainee requested for water he was abused; when some one requested for first aid, he was shot dead. During those days, kar sewa (voluntary service) of the Gurdwara building was being done by (Baba) Harbans Singh; the Army detained him too; he and his attendants and other volunteers were searched, harassed, insulted and kicked. The Army action continued for several days. Several Sikhs died here; the Army put their bodies in trailors and trollies and carried them outside the toen and burnt them by putting kerosene oil and diesel on them. Here, the Army ran amuck and desecrated the Gurdwara time and again; they smoked even the main hall; besides, the Army broke open the golak (the box where people put cash offerings) and took away the money; the stores of the the kitchen and other movable precious articles of the Gurdwara were also plundered. The same happened at Tarn Taran, Moga, Fatehgarh Sahib, Chowk Mehta, the dera of Bhindran-Mehta Jatha, and several other Gurdwaras where a large number of innocent Sikhs were killed by the Indian Army. It is intriguingly astonishing that the savagery of the Army, killing of and hatred for the Sikhs was alike at all the places in the Punjab; it seems that before launching attack on the Punjab, the soldiers had been briefed for this treatment. Another important point for record is that the Army did not sieze any arms from any Gurdwara in the Punjab.</p><p> </p><p>.</p><p>[1] Darshi, op. cit, pp. 109-110.</p><p>[2] It is allegded that he was a senior member of the Nirankari cult, which had killed 13 Sikhs in 1978.</p><p>[3] According to A.R. Darshi, General Gauri Shankar was appointed as the Security Advsor to the Governor and R. S. Dyal was ‘immediate subordinate’ to Lt. General Sunderji. (The Gallant Fighter, p. 109).</p><p>[4] Such heavy artillery, which is used only in open field battles, was arrayed against the defenders of Darbar Sahib, on a Complex where thousands of pilgrims were staying for the night; no warning was given; no one was asked to surrender.</p><p>[5] The Indian Army had already brought several tanks and at least 13 tanks were used in this ‘Operation’.</p><p>[6] Later, Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha punished General Vaidya in his own city Pune, on the 10th of August 1986; both were, later, arrested and sentenced to death; they were hanged on the 9th of October 1992.</p><p>[7] According to a hearsay account, a Sikh boy of 16 years of age, who had tied explosives to his body, jumped before the tank and destroyed it; and, due to this the tank got bogged down near the Baba Deep Singh Memorial; much later it had to be removed with much difficulty.</p><p>[8] Oppression in Punjab, p. 61.</p><p>[9] Chellaney, Brahma, An Eye Account, an article in Abida Samiuddin’s book, The Punjab Crisis: Chanllenge and Response (Delhi, 1985), p. 181.</p><p>[10] Sunday Times, dated 17.6.1984.</p><p>[11] For the Sikhs it was not the first unequal battle; they had already fought battles at Chamkaur (7-8.12.1705), Muktsar (29.12.17065), Lohgarh (29-30.11.1710), Gurdas Nangal (April to Decemebr 1715), Akal Takht Amritsar (1.12.1764), Saragarhi etc where a few of them fought against thousands of invaders.</p><p>[12] Tully, op, cit, 175.</p><p>[13] Darshi, A.R., op. cit., p. 112.</p><p>[14] Later, these signs were removed by the S.G.P.C. when Tohra was the President and Manjit Singh Calcutta was the Secretary.</p><p>[15] This volume of Guru Granth Sahib too had been hit by a bullet; this was a handwritten volume from 1830.</p><p>[16] Surya, August 1984; Nayyar, op cit, p. 102.</p><p>[17] Daily Observer, dated 9.6.1984.</p><p>[18] It is not true that the buildings had been destroyed in crossfire; the miltants had not fired a single shot on the buildings adjascent to Darbar Sahib or around it; the militants aimed only at the soldiers trying to proceed towards Akal Takht; hence the houses were destroyed by the shelling by the Army.</p><p>[19] Daily Guardian, dated 26.6.1984.</p><p>[20] Daly Telegraph, dated 15.6.1984.</p><p>[21] In September 1984 Rajiv Gandhi had admitted this figure as 700. (Nayyar, op. cit., P. 108); later, the Army too admitted that ‘troops had to pay high price and suffered heavy casualties’ (Harminder Kaur, op. cit., p 47).</p><p>[22] White Paper, p. 169.</p><p>[23] Nayyar, op. cit, p. 109.</p><p>[24] Brar, K.S., Operation Blue Star (Delhi 1992).</p><p>[25] Sarna, Jasbir Singh, History o f Sikh Students Federation, (unpublished).</p><p>[26] This is confirmed by Brahma Challeney also: “the Sikhs killed during the attack were shot at point-blank range, with their hands tied at the back with their turbans.” (op. cit. p. 185):</p><p>[27] Kumar, Ram Narayan and George Sieberer, The Sikh Struggle (Delhi 1991), p. 265.</p><p>[28] Mary Anne Weaver, in The Sunday Times, dated 10.6.1984.</p><p>[29] Darshi, A.R., op. cit., p. 116.</p><p>[30] Bhanwar, Harbir Singh, in his book Diary de Panne has given details of such acts; also see ‘Oppression in Punjab’ by C.F.D.</p><p>[31] Though most of the Sikhs present in the Darbar Sahib Complex had been killed by the Army in cold blood, still more than 350 of those who had been arrested from the headquarters of the S.G.P.C. were taken to the Army cantonement (some of them died there for want of water as they had been kept in a small confined place where they were not allowed even water; it being the hottest day of he years many of them died); those who survived were, later, lodged in Jodhpur Jail (in Rajashan); they were not tried by any court and were not released for many years; may of them had already become insane before they were released.</p><p>[32] Thukral, Gobind, Atrocities on Sikh Children, a report published in weekly India Today, dated 30.9.1984, Kumar, Ram Narayan, op. cit., p. 291.</p><p>[33] Oppression in Punjab, pp. 76-77.</p><p>[34] There were about 20000 books, about 500 handwritten volumes of Guru Granth Sahib and several relics. (The Tribune, dated 4.7.1984).</p><p>[35] Oppression in the Punjab, pp. 66-67.</p><p>[36] Ibid, p. 31 (statement of Kirpal Singh).</p><p>[37]Kirepaker, Subash, in The Punjab Story, edited by Kuldip Nayyar and Khushwant Singh, op. cit, p. 83.</p><p>[38] All this was carried under the supervision of Ramesh Inder Singh, the then D.C.of Amritsar.</p><p>[39] Chellany, op. cit., p. 182.</p><p>[40] Monthly Probe India, August 1984.</p><p>[41] Statement of Bhan Singh in Harbir Singh Bhanwar’s Diary de Panne.</p><p>[42] Indian Express, dated 12.6.1984</p><p>[43] While speaking on the Indian Government’s ‘White Paper on Punjab Situation’, on the 25th of July 184, in the Lok Sabha, Vajpayee said: “First of all I want to congratulate those officers who freed Harmandir Sahib, sacred to all the Indians, from terrorists by sacrificing their lives and putting their precious lives in danger…The army had been given a delocate responsibility and the army should be felicitated for accomplishing their duty efficiently and bravely…” (Proceedings of the Lok Sabha, dated 25.7.1984).</p><p>[44] Hindustan Times dated 10.6.1984. The B.J.P. leaders went to the extent of calling her ‘Durga’ a fictitious Hindu goddess which was shown defeating the demons in fiction works.</p><p>[45] He called it ‘swift, yet restrained, operation in flushing out terrorists from Golden Temple Comlex’ (Hindustan Times, dated 10.6.1984).</p><p>[46] Indian Express, dated 8.6.1984.</p><p>[47] Ibid.</p><p>[48] Ibid.</p><p>[49] Ibid.</p><p>[50] Hindustan Times, dated 8.6.1984.</p><p>[51] Later, Chandersheikhar sent a fact finding team to the Punjab to know the truth. But, in 1991, when Chander Sheikhar had bocame the Prime Minister of India, in collaboration with and under the blessing of Rajiv Gandhi, he exhibited an altogher different attitude; rather he behaved as a fanatic Hindu and even went to the extent of threatening another masscare of the Sikhs. Earlier he had been demanding an apology for this invasion but when he captured power he himself did not apologise (even other Prime Ministers e.g. I. K. Gujjral, V.P. Sinh, Devegauda, Vajpayee, and even puppet primi minister Manohan Singh, never apologised for attack on Darbar Sahib and atrocities committed on the Sikhs, in spite of the fact that they had known the truth behind the attack; they simply called it ‘sad’, ‘unfortunatee’ and ‘it should not happen again’).</p><p>[52] Monthly Surya, July 1984.</p><p>[53] Ibid.</p><p>[54] The Sunday Times, dated 10.6.1984, Nayyar, Kuldip, op. cit., p. 56.</p><p>[55] Indian Express, dated 15.6.1984.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="spnadmin, post: 147373, member: 35"] [B]From 'Sikhs: Past & Present' journal of Sikh Studies. For details, read: SIKH HISTORY in 10 Volumes by Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer (It is in volume 7).[/B] [B]Attack on Darbar Sahib (Part 2)[/B] Events Realting to Attack on Darbar Sahib On the 2nd of June 1984, the Indian Army sealed all the international border, from Ganganagar in Rajasthan to Jammu; several army tanks, a large number of army trucks and Armed Personnel Carriers (A.P.C.) as well as other Army vehicles were seen everwhere in the Punjab and on the international border. The same day, formalities of takeover by the Army were performed; the Army set up Command Headquarter in the Police Kotwali (about 300 metres from Darbar Sahib), the ‘Armed Group’ of the 350 Infantry Brigade, which was to guide ‘Operation’ (it was to act under the command of K.S. Brar), was stationed here, at the top floor of this building; and this office was direct on line with the Central Government’s Control Room at Delhi which was under the over all command of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi assisted by Arun Nehru, Arun Nehru, and K. P. Sinh Deo (Deputy Defence Minister).[1] The same day, R. S. Dayal[2] (Chief of Staff Western Command) took over as the Advisor Security[3] to te Governor of the Punjab; and, with this all the telecommunication, postal services and rail and bus transport was taken over or suspended by the Army; the Punjab Police had now virtually no role as they were to obeyorders of the Army; by the evening the Army had been posted on all the key positions: the railway stations, bus stands and all the transport, telecommunication towers and their offices, bridges and roads, canals and rivers, administration and public services; now all the infra structure in the Punjab was under the command of the Indian Army; all the foreign citizens were ordered to leave the Punjab. Gurdev Singh Refuses to sign orders to attack Darbar Sahib: Before formally launching th attack the Army needed formal signatures from the Deputy Commissioner (D.C.) of Amritsar; at that time Gurdev Singh was the D.C. and he refused to sign permission/orders to attack Darbar Sahib; as a result he was replaced by Rameshinder Singh (whom Parkash Badal appointed as the Chief Secretary in his Government); Gurdev Singh was sent on leave but even during this ‘holidays period’ he was to remain under strict survielence of the Army; Rameshinder Singh immediately signed orders to attack. As per planning the attack was to begin early in the morning of the 4th of June 1984; frontal attack on Akal Takht was to be made by specially trained commandos from 1st battalion, the Parachute Regiment, wearing black denims with bullet-proof vests; they were to be followed by the 10 Guards and the 12 Bihar Corps; they were to be assisted by 26 Madras and 9 Kumaon. The 12 Bihar Corps had already taken positions around Darbar Sahib, right in the morning of the 3rd of June. As per planning the whole ‘Operation’ was to be completed in thirty-six hours; hence, on the 3rd of June, at 9 p.m., a thirty-six hour curfew (later extended for another thirty-six hours) was imposed in the whole of the Punjab; and, in and around Darbar Sahib, electricity and water services were disconnected. On the other hand, when the electricity was disconnected General Subeg Singh understood that the attack would begin within hours so he assigned duties to the defending Sikh volunteers whose number was between 100 and 125; they took positions in the basement of Akal Takht, in and around the parikarma (periphery) of the Ghanta Ghar (clock tower) gate of Darbar Sahib; the Babars took positons at the top of Ramgarhia Bunga (two eighteen century towers on the corner of Darbar Sahib) and on the water tank (in side Guru Ram Dass Saran). The Final Attack Begins In the morning of the 4th of June, the Army was assigned job like this: (a) North-west zone of Darbar Sahib Complex (Ghant Ghar to Akal Takht) = one Infantry Unit, one Para Commandos, one Company Specail Border Force [S.S.F.] (b) Darbar Sahib itself = one unit (c) South-east zone of Darbar Sahib Complex (Aata Mandi, Sikh Reference Library, Baba Atal, Manji Sahib) = one Infantry Batallion (d) reserve for all these three = one Infantry Batallion (e) siege of Darbar Sahib = one Infantry Batallion. On that day, there were more than five thousand Sikhs inside Darbar Sahib; it being the anniversary of the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Sahib, people from the whole of the Punjab and even other places had gone there to make obeisance; a thousand strong jatha, which was to court arrest the following day had also arrived; besides some Bangla Deshis, who were to board a train to Pakistan the following day, had also gone to Darbar Sahib for meals and night stay. On the night of the 3rd of June the Army had forcibly taken over ‘Braham Buta Akhara’ and ‘Temple View Hotel’; and these were, later used for Operation. At 4.40 a.m. the final assault of ‘Operation’ began; first of all the Army attacked the water tank (inside Guru Ram Dass Saran) and the ‘Ramgarhia Bunga’ (two towers of the eighteenth century) with 106 M.M. cannon, 25 pounder 3.7 inch Howitzers guns, mortars and 3.7 Howell guns, LMG and MMG guns;[4] which blasted the water tank and the upper part of the Ramgarhia Bunga, killing all those who had taken positions there; their bodies fling off in pieces all around; thus this front was won by the Army without any battle. Bombardment of the Army was so savage that not a single person, including the defending miltants and the pilgrims staying there to spend night, survived this savage attack. After this, 50 specially trained commandos of the ‘10 Guard’ unit moved towards ‘Ghanta Ghar entrance’, most of them were immediately killed and the rest were wounded (among the wounded was also Jasbir Raina who, a day earlier, had gone to Darbar Sahib to collect sensitive information; later one of his legs had to be amputed; he remained handicapped for the rest of his life). When the first batch of the commandos was eliminated Para Commandos and the S.S.F. took their place to move towards Akal Takht. Hundreds of soldiers tried to reach Akal Takht so that they should throw poisonous gas cannisters and ‘stun bombs’ inside the Takht building to kill or make unconscious the Sikhs present there; but none of them could reach proceed even a few metres, all of them were killed; some of them tried to proceed by crawling but the too were killed by a machinegun which the Sikh fighters had set on the floor; b noon hundreds of soldiers had been killed and there was not even 10% success; the whole passage between Ghanta Ghar and Akal Takht was full of deadbodies of the soldiers of the India Army. After this the Army began throwing gas shells but as the direction of the wind was towards the Army, it rather boomranged and harmed the Army. Later, in the evening the Army succeeded in reaching the roof of the periphery from where it began firing and now a battle began for the occupation of the rooms adjascent to the Ghanta Ghar entrance; this pitched battle took lives of hundreds of soldiers and also the Sikhs who had taken positions there. Though the Army had achieved no success, no head way, to advance towards Akal Takht still Lt Genenral K.C. Padda, along with his Subedar Major and 30 specially trained commandos tried to adnance but all of them were killed. By this time the Army had occupied the building agjascent to Thara Sahib (a few metres from Akal Takht) and began shellin Akal Takht and throwing gas shells; and with ths a unit of the S.S.F. tried to advance; they too were killed in minutes; thus the Indian soldiers had achieved nothing except deaths. On the side of the Guru Ran Das Saran too, the Indian Army began its operation; as the main gate was locked, the Army tried to break it but the guns could not succeed in getting it opened; hence tanks had to be brought in to break the gate; but when, after getting the gate opened, the Army tried to proceed further, gun fire from Baba Atal, Langar building and the Saran blocked its advance; now the tanks began continuous firing, but in spite of this the 26 Madras battalion could not get much success. When this front too was not successful, two Companies of the 9 Garhwal were sent to attack the Ghanta Ghar of Aata Mandi side; had they achieved success they were to be followed by the 15 Kumaon which had been, earlier, reserved for taking control of Guru Ram Das Saran, Akal Rest House, Teja Singh Samundari Hall and the office of the Akali Dal; but as the 9 Garhwal could not achieve its target the 15 Kumaon was sent to help it. After a pitched battle and loss of hundreds of soldiers, the India Army finally succeded in occupying the Saran on the 5th of June i.e. the second day of the battle; after this the soldiers, under the command of Lt General Israr Khan, began throwinf grenades in all the rooms of the Saran where the pilgrims had been staying. Early in the morning of the 6th of June (at about 1.30 a.m.) the 9 Garhwal had succeeded in occupying the Sikh Reference Library and a few rooms around it. On the Akal Takht front, 15 Kumaon, under the command of N.C. Pant was engaged in heavy fighting. On the 6th of June, at about 2 a.m., the position was: Though the 10 Guards had occupied northeren Ghanta Ghar but it had lost hundreds of soldiers; and the soldiers were still becoming victims of firing. 26 Madras had reached in the southern gate. 9 Garhwal Rifles had occupied the Sikh Reference Library. ‘One Para Commando’ Force and the ‘S.S.F.’ had lost several soldiers but they have not achieved even minor success to advance towards Akal Takht. Deployment of tanks to blow out Akal Takht By this time (at 2 a.m. on the 6th of June), Brigadier A. K. Diwan (nickname Chikki) reached at the Sikh Reference Library; K. S. Brar assigned him command of 26 Mardras, 15 Kumaon and 9 Garhwal and directed them to target only Akal Takht; with in half an hour this group began its action; hundreds of shells were fired but the Indian Army could not procced even centimetre; and the losses of the Army were very high. At this Diwan and Brar decided to bring in tanks;[5] Brar contacted Sunderji, the Chief of ‘Blue Star Operation’ on walkie-takie and the got sought consent of Indira Gandhi through General Vaidya,[6] the Chief of the Indian Army. Between 2.30 and 3 a.m. the first tank was brought from the side of Guru Ram Das Saran; it was 38 Ton Vijayanta Tank fitted with 105 mm heavy guns. This tank entered the periphery of Darbar Sahib and threw search light at Akal Takht and began heavy shelling with 105 mm guns; it was supported by guns of the Army units which had taken positions on the roofs of the buildings of both Ghanta Ghars but, this action cold not contine long because the wires of the bulb of the search light got fused after one minute;[7] now the Army brought in another tank; this too met the same fate; then a third tank was also brought in. At that time it was dark and the helicopter helped the Army in identifying the targets for attack. “The helicopters hovered above and contined to fire from above. Some of the helicopters also guided the firing squads of the Army by making a circle of light around the targets. Immediately after these circles, the cannon ***** would land on the targets causing havoc. We saw a large number of boys blown to pieces.” [8] The tanks could not give the expected results; now Polish built eight-wheeled mechanised carriers ’Armoured Personnel Carriers’ (A.P.C.) and cannons were brought in; to bring them into the periphery the stairs of the entrance to the periphery had to be blasted with the help of another tank because the Scott could not have crossed these stairs. By this time, shells of 84 mm of Carl Gustav (of Sweden) guns were being showered of Akal Takht. Now some commandos of the 15 Kumaon, seated in an A.P.C., tried to proceed towards Akal Takht; all this time rockets of the Army continued shelling Akal Takht so that the Army may get the shield from the attacks by the militants; but, then an anti-tank shell, thrown by the miltants, fell upo this A.P.C. and it got jammed there and then. Now, Brar got consent of Indira Gandhi to totally blast Akal Takht building with the help of he tanks; at 5.10 a.m. Indira Gandhi called General A. S. Vaidya, the Chief Commander of Army, and after getting his nod she gave permission for this action too she had not slept for the past two days); having got ‘go ahead’ from Vaidya and Indira Gandhi, at 5.21. a.m. the army began constant shelling of the Takht building; within hours one third of the building had disappeared but still there was heavy confrontation. From the other side, at about 5.45 a.m., Major B.K. Mishra of the Commando Company, succeeded in reaching near the stairs of the Akal Takht; the miltants had in fact not attacked them deliberately and allowed them to proceed and when they reached there all of them were killed. By 6.20 a.m. the Indian Army had achieved nothing but deaths and destruction. At about 6.20 a.m. Subedar K.P. Raman Ravi and some of his commandos too reached near the Akal Takht; the miltants let them too to continue moving ahead, but when the reached the stairs, the miltants pounced upon them and took them in the basement of Akal Takht and tied a bomb on the body of Raman and blasted his body; the rest too were killed. At 7.30 a.m. the Indian army again began shelling the building of Akal Takht; about 80 squash-head sheels of 105 mm were fired at the Takht; this action continued till 11.30 a.m.; but, in spite of this the Army could not reach near the Takht. In the night, the biggest battle began; to quote an eye witness: “At about 9 p.m. on 6 June, entire city of Amritsar was shaken by powerful shelling, mortar explosion and machine-gun fire. The big battle had begun. Half the city was on rooftos watching the battle. Tracer bullets and flares lit up the crescent moonsky. The explosion at Golden Temple rattled doors and windows miles away. While the battle was raging, the state run radio claimed taht the city was ‘calm’.[9]In spite of using tanks, helicopters, and the latest top-most world renowned guns, the mighty Indian Army had not been able to reach near the building of Akal Takht. According to one souce[10] 15000 troops took part in assault, 35000 standing by to put down an internal rebellion; it futher says: ‘Not even in the more ruthless days of the empire had the army been used to storm such an important religious building’; besides he number of the defenders was not more one hundred and fifty; and such a small number of defenders of the Darbar Sahib did not allow the mighty Army to win a few hectares of land for four long days; it is perhaps the greatest battle of the world history. Another historical fact of this battle is that in this battle the Indian Army used more ammunition than it had used at any front, in the earlier wars (1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak War and 1962 Indo-China war) by the Indian Army; probably, in no battle, for the occupation of one small Complex, so much ammunition was used throughout the history of the battles of the world. It was fifth historic unequal battle in the history of India in which, on one side there were about one hundered defenders against fifteen thousand strong force (with another fifty thousand reserve forces as stand by); the former had just a small quantity of guns whereas the invaders had helicopters, tanks, most modern army vehicles, guns, canons, latest ammunition with endless quantity; the defenders fought without eating or drinking any thing whereas the invading army had full supplies of everything; it was unequal battle perhaps the greatest event of military history of the world.[11] On the midnight between the 6th and 7th of June, Baba Bhingranwala, Bhai Amrik Singh, Thara Singh and about a dozen more Sikhs who were present in the basement of Akal Takht discussed the whole situation; they realised that in the three days’ battle, though the Indian Army has suffered colossal loss but on the other hand the bulding of Akal Takht has been badly damged; the sight is awesome; they realised that they don’t have much ammunition left with them and they won’t be able to resisted for more than a few hours; hence it was resolved that those who can escape from that place must do so; when some one suggested Bhindranwala that he too should escape he immediately retorted: ‘I have to embrace martyrdom’ and Bhai Amrik Singh too asserted that he won’t leave. After this, about a dozen Sikhs, including Thara Singh etc, crossed to the adjoining buildings (at that time the building of Takht was surrounded by residential buildings) and then escaped through narrow lanes with the help of some employees of the S.G.P.C. The next morning, on the 7th of June, at about 7 a.m. Baba Jarnail Singh and Bhai Amrik Singh recited their nitnaym (daily prayer) and came out of the basement; Baba Jarnail Singh took position on the backside of the flagpole and began fighting; within some minutes a volley of bullets hit him and he was killed and so was Bhai Amrik Singh. Now, the major leaders of the Sikh miltants were no more, the great General Subeg Singh had already embraced martyrdom a day before. Even after this the battle continued till noon and when all the ammunition was finished, they too embraced death. It was only in the forenoon hours of the 7th of June when there was no firing from the side of Akal Takht for a long time; the Indian Army realised that all the miltants must have been dead and then they moved towards Akal Takht. When the Army (26 Madras Regiment) entered the basement of the Takht, it found only 38 bodies of the defenders of the Takht; Bhindranwala’s body was found near the flag-pole. It was shameful on the part of the Indian Army that they tied the deadbody of General Subeg Singh and dragged it just to express their anger against him. Tully has reported that he had seen pictures of Subeg Singh’s deadbody which show that ropes had been tied around his arms and he was dragged before he died.[12] Mark Tully is wrong in saying that Subeg Singh was caught alive and tortured to death; in fact, he was already dead and it was the deadbody that had been dragged). Greatest Battle of Resistance in History About fifty thousand soldiers of the Indian Army, known as the ‘third greatest army of the world’, with all its three wings (Army, Air Force and Navy), fully equipped with helicopters, tanks, cannons, guns and unlimited ammunition as well as all sorts of provisions, and with endless supply of everything and other facilities, attacked Darbar Sahib Complex to capture just 444 square feet area; and, on the other hand, just a few ordinary Sikhs, between 40 and 100 as per different estimates, who did not have even proper training to fire guns, and had nothing to eat or drink and no back up or supply for all the period of battle, without having a wink of sleep for more than three long days, resisted such a mammoth army for more than three days; hence this was perhaps the greatest battle of resistance in the history of the world. Devestations inside and around Darbar Sahib After the battle was over, though the Kotha Sahib (where Guru Granth Sahib was kept every night) most of the the building of Akal Takht had turned into rebbles, so were the water tank (in Guru Ram Das Saran) as well as the top of the historic Ramgarhia Bungas. To quote an eye witness: “I saw these building two weeks after the terrific bombardment which were razed to the ground. I was shocked to se the extant of cruelty and brutality committed by the Army on its own people. Perhaps the Army had treated the innocent Sikh victims as enemies. General Brar when addressing the Army Jawans, before the attack had used the word ‘enemy’ for those inside the Complex...”[13] A day after the Army finally occupied Akal Takht, it produced Kirpal Singh, the caretaker of the Takth before TV, and the latter announced that the Kotha Sahib was perfectly OK; he did not say that the rest of the building had been fully destroyed; the man who was to act as the ‘custodian’ of the building had lied; even if he lied in order to save his life, he had exhibited his cowardice; besides this was also an act of sacrilege of the Takht and the office he was holding. By the time the Army had taken over the Sikhs had been performing services at Darbar Sahib; though there were two of them and they continued it one after the other; but, when the Army occupied it, it killed the person who was performing services and stopped recitation of Guru Granth Sahib; it was, thus, suspended for the first time in the past 222 years. The Army restarted service on the 8th of June but no Sikh was allowed to enter Darbar Sahib for 21 days (on the 25th of June 1984 only a few persons were allowed entry, for a short time; and, it was sealed again when the Army observed anger and disdain for the Army, on the faces and in the eyes of even those selected visitors); it remained under the occupation of the Army up to September 1984. Not only Akal Takht, Ramgarhia Bunga and watertank but even the Darbar Sahib had been badly damaged; there were more than 350 signs of bullets on this building.[14] When the India Army occupied Akal Takht, two Sikhs, one of whom was blind of both eyes, were still there in side the central hall (wrongly known as centro centrum) of Darbar Sahib; they were attending Guru Granth Sahib; the Indian Army entered this place and shot at the Sikh reading Scripture;[15] later he was identified as Bhai Awtar Singh of Purowal.[16] After this the Army took possession of even money and golden ornaments, which were the offerings made by the visitors; (the army had also taken possession of the money found in the S.G.P.C. treasury); total gold carried away by the Army, from the whole of the Darbar Sahib Complex, was about four quintals of gold as well as some diamonds; besides the Army also took away a large number of other valuable items including TV sets, VCRs, refrigerators and other electronic gadgets. Several soldiers also took away money, watches, golden ornaments snatched by them from the Sikhs arrested by them. Per chance the Army did not know about the Tosha Khana (the treasure house) of Darbar Sahib which is on the first floor of the Darshani Deodi, otherwise it (the Army) would have taken away this too; in this Tosha Khana there are kept precious things, gold and diamonds and other rare relics worth billions of rupees; howver, during the Army fire a precious canopy, studded with diamonds, which had been presented by the Chief of Hyderabad State, in early nineteenth century, had already been burn. To quote a London newspaper: “Outside the Golden Temple scores of buildings have been reduced to rubble. Flies outnumber people who stand around, in mournful groups, ouside their damaged homes. Foreign reporters have not been allowed inside the inner walled city which has been badly damged by shell-fire. Four of the seven bazaars have been hit by shells and partly destroyed.”[17] To quote another newspaper: “Hundreds of houses and shops surrounding the Temple, the hub of the city, were reduced to rubble in the crossfire.[18] As a conservative estimate, more than 500 buildings have been destroyed. Many of those who died are believed to have been indoors when the ancient building collapsed under fire. Bodies are still being dug from debris. All the bodies can not be recovered till the entire area is demolished. The destruction has left nearly 30000 people homeless.”[19] According to the correspomdence of the Daily Telegraph (London): “The Akal Takht looks like it has been bombed. It looks like a building in Berlin after War. Everything in the Complex has been riddles with bullets and there was still a stench of death in the air.”[20] (Stress, in bold letters, is mine – author). Weapons exhibited by the Army A few days later, the Indian Army released pictures and made an exhibition of several weapons claiming that those had been recovered from Darbar Sahib; when the media questioned that most of the weapon displayed by the army were brand new and shining, the officials had no answer; the truth is that all these were brought by the Army in order to defame the Sikh militants; had those been the weapons belonging to the militants then at least some of these must have been damaged by heavy bombardment. Moreover, for the past many months there was complete blockade of Darbar Sahib by para-miltary forces; hence it was not possible to smuggle them into the Complex without the consent or collaboration of the Government or the forces. Furthermorethe total number of the weapns exhibited was not more than 250; commenting on this General Jagjit Arora (of Bangadesh fame) said: ‘Not more than 250 persons who would have used them.’ How Many Persons died? The Government India’s ‘White Paper’ (which is just a bundle of lies) calims that 83 soldiers[21] and 493 Sikhs were killed in the Army attack; it also mentions that 59 persons died or were injured in other Gurdwaras[22]. It is shame that a Government is not willing to tell truth about the casualties. The non-offcial accounts mention the number of the casualties between three and eight thousand;[23] according to Sarna 1208 soldiers and 122 Sikh defenders were killed; besides the Army killed 3228 Sikh pilgrims too; the Government claimed that 287 soldiers and 121 Sikhs were wounded, whereas according to Sarna, the number of the wounded soldiers was around 3000, 12 Sikh defenders and 1526 Sikh pilgrims and Bangadeshis, who were staying there to board train the following day; similarly, according to this source, the number of Sikhs arrested (mostly pilgrims) was 1592 from Darbar Sahib[24] and 796 from other Gurdwaras and 2324 from other places in the Punjab (a total of 4712).[25] The number of the Sikhs killed was so high due t two reasons: 1. “The army which had suffered a heavy toll in the three days battle went berserk and killed every Sikh to be found iside the temple complex. They were hauled out of the rooms, brough to corridors in the circumference of the temple and with hands tied to their backs[26] were shot in cold blood. Among the victims were many old men, women and children.”[27] 2. “The Army may be operating under ‘take-no-prioners’ order.”[28]In other words the Indian Army had perpetrated brutalities on innocent persons, several of them were children. It belies the statement by K. Sunderji, the Chief of this ‘Operation’ who said that “We went inside the premises of Golden Temple Complex with humility in our hearts and prayers on our lips”[29]; whereas the truth is that having suffered heavy losses the Indian Army behaved even ordinary Sikh passengers as a savage animal who would pounce upon a lamb. Honouring Brutal Sodiers During the attack on Darbar Sahib, the Indian Army had behaved as brutal enenmies; no warnings, no attempts to save inncent pilgrims, indiscrimate killings, inhuman treatment with the dead, not handing over the dead to their relatives, keeping no records of the dead, buring of bodies without identification, cremating the deadbodies by puring kerosene oil and petrol on them, perpetrating atrocites on the arrested Sikhs by keeping them in small cells without water and thus killing several of them, killing those prisoners who begged for water (this being the hottest month of the years), detaining babies and children (for months) were among the great achievents of the Indian Army etc were the ‘achievements’ of the India Army. What the Indian Army did had no parallels in the world history; most ferocious invaders had not behaved in such savage manner; still the Indian Government presented these inhuman soldiers and generals with gallantry Awards, honours, decoration strips, promotions etc for thir ‘heroic acts’; this special ‘Award Ceremony’ was performed on the 10th of July 1985. It is amazing to note that the Indian Government had not honoured the brave soldiers who had performed acts of chivalry during the battles of 1962, 1965 and 1971; honouring of those who had perpetrated atriciites on its own people and had crossed all the limits of inhuman acts was shocking and shameful; however it exposed the Sikh-hatred of the Indian regime; further shocking is that these ‘Awards’ were given by Sikh looking President; so devoid of self respect he was! Why This Day was especially Chosen? The Indian Government knew that the 4th of June 1984 was the anniversary of the martyrsdom of Guru Arjan Sahib, the founder of the Darbar Sahib (and son of the founder of the city of Amritsar) hence thousands of Sikhs, from various parts of the Punjab and other places, were sure to visit to make obeisance; besided an Akali agitation was also going on; that day a 1000 stong jatha of Nachhatar Singh Bhalwan had also arrived to court arrest on the following day; the Government chose this day especially so as to show the world that the number of the miltants was so high. Even if we accept that the Army did not know about these two points still, on the first of June, several senior officials of the Army had taken a round of the Darbar Sahib on their ‘spying mission’ and had observed that the number of the visitor there was always in thousands; they could have given an ultimatum to the visitors to come out (the Army could arrest and invesitagate their credentials to separate militants from ordinary visitors); no such untimatum was given, no announcement was made, no offer to surrender was made; on the other hand there is ample evidence that those who surrendered were indiscriminately killed by the Army because did not want arrests; hence liquidations. There is ample evidence that the soldiers went around the Guru Ram Das Saran (hostel for the visitors) as well as in the rooms in the parikarama (periphery) and threw hand gernates in every room killimg whosoever was there;[30]more than one thousand Sikhs were killed in this action. However, the Army did make some arrests too; it seems it had special instructions that Longowal Akali Dal and his associates should not be harmed (it is this point which creates doubt that they had at least some secret understanding with the Government; however, the letters, purported to have been written by them to and from the Government and the RAW, attributed to them are fake ones). When the Army had occupied the Saran, General Brar had aksed Lt. Colonel K. Bhaumik (who was the incharge of this part of the Darbar Sahib Complex) to find Longowal, Tohra and their associates; but, as there was no electricity, he had to face difficulty; however, the latter finally succeeded in finding them with the help of two Sikhs from among a group of those who had been arrested by the Army from Teja Singh Samundari Hall (the office of the S.G.P.C.). These two Sikhs, escorted by Major H.K. Palta, took the soldies to a room where Longowal, Tohra, Bibi Amarjeet Kaur, Bhan Singh, Balwant Ramuwalia etc were sitting; by this time Harminder Singh Sandhu and Manjit Singh (brother of Bhai Amrik Singh) too arrived there and begged the Akalis to tell the Army that they were their (Akalis’) associates; soon after the Army escorted all of them safely to the military vehicles and took them to their camp. As mentioned earlier that the Army had arrested some Sikhs from the Teja Singh Samundari Hall; their number was about 350; all of them were brought out in open; with in a few minutes a grenade fell among this gathering killing more than 70 of them; Gurcharan Singh (who had master-minded the killing of Sodhi) too was one of these. The Army claimed that the grenade had been thrown by the militants but it seems to be wrong because by that time the Army had occupied all that zone; had this been an act by an miltant then the Army would have fired shots towards the direction from where the grenade had been thrown; but this was not done hence this was an act by the Army itself; moreover if it was thrown by the miltants then they would have targeted the soldiers.[31] Babies and Children sent to Jails The Indian Army killed thousands of pilgrims who had gone to Darbar Sahib to make obeisance, some of them were carrying infants or were accompanied by small children; several children were killed when the soldiers threw handgernades in every room of the Darbar Sahib Complex but those who survived were taken into custody and sent to jails; tese children were aged between two and tweleve; 39 of thse children were kept in Ludhiana Jail; and these innocent babies who had been branded as ‘terrorists’ were graded in three categories: very dangerous, dangerous and potentially dangerous. These children had no one to attend, the leder (tweleve years old) would console the two years old babies; however they did get food (whatsoever its standard) in jail, every day there were tears and cries, the children begged to be sent home to their parents (they did not know that their parents had been killed and cremated by the Army). As per the Indian Laws no child under the age f sixteen can be arrested or lodged in a jail or detained in a police station; this is categorically prohibited under the Children Act 1960 and the East Punjab Act 1976 but these acts were not applicable to the Sikh children; the Army, the jail authorities, the C.B.I. refused to bother for these Acts; when the Human Rights organisations brought this inhuman treatment of babies, the Government officials, including the Governor, they did not bother; perhaps for them the Sikhs had no human rights. Finally, when Kamla Devi Chattopadhya, a philanthropist social worker, approached the Supreme Court, these children were released; even here, the Jail Superintendent tried to ditch the Court order, some of them were transferred to Nabha Jail who could not released at that time and languished in jals for several years;[32] when released, some of them had become physical and mental wrecks.[33] Plundering of the Sikh Archieves By the evening of the 5th of June 1984, the India Army had completely occupied the whole North-East (Braham Buta Akhara to Guru Ram Das Saran) and South-East (Guru Ram Das Saran to Ghanta Ghar on the South of Darbar Sahb, including Baba Atal); and it was from the roof of the Sikh Reference Library that the Indian Army was observing the scenario of Akal Takht. At that time the Library was locked; the Indian Army broke open the lock and took possession of it. On the 7th of June, when the Army had occupied Akal Takht too, it ordered 200 boxes in which all the precious and rare books, manuscripts, relics, rare newspapers etc were packed in these boxes; besids there were hundreds of handwritten volumes of Guru Granth Sahib, some of which were as old as from seventeenth century, were also packed and taken away.[34] After this the wooden racks and newspapers of contemporary period were set on fire and, later, it announced that the Library caught fire in cross-firing; this fact was denied by Davinder Singh Duggal, in charge of the Library, who was present in the adjoining quarter, which was his residence. The Army took away the precious archieves with it which remained at Merrut Cantinement for some time; it was never returned to the Sikhs (at least up to the end of 2011). The Army carried away not only the Sikh Reference Library but also all the papers, account books, proceedings and other records of the S.G.P.C. and the Akali Dal and these too were never returned. Damage to the Sikh Museum too was enormous; 132 precious paintings had been ravaged by the bullets; besides the Army had captured the Central Sikh Museum (situated on the first floor of Clock Tower) also; from here too, the Army took away several precious items including some historical paintings, rare coins, picture albums, a rosary presented by Maharaja Daleep Singh and a hand embroidered picture of Guru Nanak presented by the famous Pakistani singer Malika Pukhraj and her daughter Tahira. Later, on the 14th of June, Davinder Singh Duggal, who had been arrested on the 7th of June, from his residence in the Darbar Sahib Complex, was brought to the Library by the Army and asked to ‘take charge’ of the Library; when he said ‘where is the Library’ he was told that he had no option but to sign a typed receipt which said ‘I have taken charge of the Sikh Reference Library’; Duggal added a sentence ‘I have taken charge of the ashes of the Library’ and signed it.[35] Cremation of (insult to) the dead-bodies The total loss of life in this Army attack was around than 6000, out of which more than 1200 were the soldiers of the Indian Army; funeral of the soldiers was conducted by their respective units. On the other hand, the authorities did not bother to identify or even to record the number of the casualties on the Sikh side. “When General Dyer killed people in Jallianwala Bagh, the dead bodies were given to theri relatives but strangely our own Army killed our own people and did not return the bodies to their relatives.”[36] To dispose off the deadbodies of the Sikhs the Army tried to enage first sme truck-cleaners and other labour but when they refused, the sweepers were engaged to carry the deadbodies to the cremation ground but as the bodies had been lying there for the past two or more days, hence decomposed and stinking; first the sweepers refused even to to touch them; finally, when the Army supplied them bottles of rum and big sum of money they agreed.[37] As most of the dead-bodies had become highly discomposed, when the sweepers carried them to the trucks, limbs fell down and flesh came into their hands; as a result they collected fallen limbs in turbans and dupattas (scarfs) of the dead Sikh, and put these pieces in garbage-carrying vessels, buckets and stretchers and loaded them into the garbage trollies; every where pieces of flesh and pools of blood, at places even ankle-deep congealed blood, created a grotesque scene. After this hen these bodies were taken to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital for post mortem; first doctors expressed their in ability to perfrom autopsy but when threatened of dire consequences they had to make formalties of post-mortem as an eye-wash as they faced big problem in performing; post-mortem of decomposed bodies; and, after this, these dead-bodies were again loaded in garbage trollies like dead animals and taken to the nearby Chatiwind Crematorium where these were burnt by pouring kerosene oil, diesel and petrol on them because there was not enough wood to burn them.[38] As the dead-bodies had been rottening for three days the stench of the decomosed bodies and their burning with kerosene oil remained in the air for several weeks. To quote Chelanney: “Bodies were being brought in munciple garbage trucks round the clock since early 6 June; ‘we have been really busy; to ad to our woes, we don’t have enough wood to burn the dead, and we have been cremating them in heaps of twenty or more’, said a crematory official. Near the Golden Temple I saw an estimated 50 corpses in a rubbish lorry that had sewage sill smeared on its outer body. From the back of the grey truck, at least two masculine legs were sticking out and from the left one could see the hanging forehead and the long flowing hair on an apparently unturbanned Sikh. As I peeped into the truck from the back, I could see dead bodies of at least two women and a child. That night it was difficult to sleep. I kept thinking of the dead bodies.”[39] According to a solider, some of the deadbodies of the Sikhs were even thrown into the rivers Raavi and Beas: “On the morning of June 6, the Golden Temple Complex was like a graveyard. Bodies lay all around in buildins, on the parkarma and in the sarovar. The Sun was shining and stench from bodies was becoming unbearable. Bidies of Jawans were identified and hand over to their respective regiments. I myself carried the bodies of three soldiers on my shoulders. Each regiment conducted the funeral rites of their various Jawans. The civilians, who died, about 1500 of them, were piled in trollies and carried away. A lot of them were thrown into the rivers. The battle was a tragic one. I could noteat anything. Food made me sick. I used to drink lots of rum and go to sleep.”[40] This soldier’s confession of drinking of a lot of rum is confirmed by the fact that all of the Indian Army who joined attack on Darbar Sahib were give regular supply of whiskey; as per records of the Army Canteens in the Punjab, the Army bought seven hundred thousand bottles of rum, thrity thousand havles (of bottles) of whisky, sixty thousand halves of brandy and sixty thousand beer bottles. The soldiers were also supplied thousands of packs of cigarettes too; the soldiers were seen openly smoking in the Darbar Sahib complex.[41] The Hindus Celebrate Killings of the Sikhs When the Army had taken full control of Darbar Sahib; it revealed the news to the local Hindus who had been serving the Army officials with tea, fruit, sweets and other refreshments since the 4th of June; the Army brought some senior Hindus to let them have a look at the deadbody of Baba Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala; after returning to their streets, these Hindu groups began dancing as if they had achieved their greatest victory of life; this was followed by distribution of sweets to the soldiers and the Hindus of the town; some Hindu woment went to the extent of performing worship of the Hindu Army officers; the Hindus celebrated this as a victory of the Hindu community over the Sikh nation; in fact the Army too had fought as if it was on war with the Sikhs as a nation and not the Sikh miltants or Khalistanis or Bhindranwala. Fanatic Hindu Politician Support Indira Gandhi’s Action The attack on Darbar Sahib by Indira Gandhi was reacted to differently by different leaders; the R.S.S. chief Balasaheb Deoras,[42] Atal Bihari Vajpaee[43], the B.J.P. (its Executive even passed a reolution to this effect)[44], Lok Dal leader Chowdhry Charan Singh,[45] Janta Party leaders Madhu Dandvate,[46] Ram Krishan Hegde,[47] Ravinder Varma and Raj Narayan[48], former Prime Minister Morarji Desai and former Deputy Prime Minsiter Y.B. Chavan[49] and all other Hindu fundamentalists and even the C.P.I. and the C.P.M. (both the Communist Parties) supported Indira Gandhi’s attack;[50] none of them, however, tried to know the truth behind the attack and what had happened there at Amritsar. On the other hand, Janta Party President Chander Sheikhar[51] and another senior Janta leader Subramaniam Swamy,[52] Andhra Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao[53] strongly condemned the attack. International Press condemns Indira Gandhi Tha attack on Darbar Sahib was condemned by the international media in strong words; to quote a few of them: “Mughal emperors and British Governors alike tried military solutions to the Sikh problem and succeeded only in adding to the rolls of martyrs, chersished by the pround and prickly people. Sikhs also have long memories. They have never forgotten or forgiven the day in 1919 when General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire in the sacred city of Amirtsar and Mrs. Gandhi may well have cause to rue the day she did the same.” (R. H. Greenfield, in The Sunday Telegraph, dated 10.6.1984). “While the impact of Indira Gandhi’s action cannot yet be measured, she can be sure of a heart-felt vote of thanks from the Hindus in the north-east.” (Michael Hamlyn, in The Times, dated 9.6.1984). “Historical parallels may be dangerous, but last week’s killings in the Golden temple and the Amritsar massacre of 1919 hve some remarkable similarities.” (The Sunday Times, dated 10.6.1984). “The 1984 battle of Golden Temple, like the 1919 Amritsar Massacre (Jallianwala Bagh), marks the beginning of a new potentially turbulent chapter in the Indian history. The chapter which opened with the 1919 massacre ended with the departure of the British. The new one is pnly ten days old, anmd no one can say how it will end.” (Robin Lusting, in The Observer, dated 17.6.1984). From among foreign countries only Russia supported Indira Gandhi’s action and said that she had succeeded in crushing a U.S.A. inspired conspiracy. It is widely believed that the Russian K.G.B. and military expertise was available to the Indian Army; even the Israeli Mossad and the British counter-insurgency experts had been consulted by the Indian Government; within previous few months, Gary Saxena and R.N. Kay, the two officers of the India secret service (RAW) made several trips to London to seek expertise.[54] Attack on another more than 74 Gurdwaras Though the Indian Government declared that it wanted to ‘free Darbar Sahib of the terrorists’ but this was all lie, blatant lie; had this been so then what was the need of putting siege to so many Gurdwaras throughout the Punjab. The fact is that, along with the Darbar Sahib, there were seventy-four other Gurdwaras, thrity seven of them of historical significance, which were simultaneously stormed by the Indian troops on the pretext of ‘flushing the terrorists’. At all these places the Army killed scores of innocent Sikhs especially the youth. At Patiala, the Indian Army put siege to the historical Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran; without any warning the Army began firing at the Gurdwara; after this it arrested all the Sikh youth whe had gone there to make obeisance, lined them up and killed them in cold blood; the killer soldiers asked them ‘Do you still want Khalistan?’ and shot them at point blank range through their temples. The Army accepted killing 20 Sikhs but as per the doctors, who held postmrtem of the dead, the number was 56. At Chamkaur Sahib too the Indian Army put siege to the Gurdwara; no one allowed entering or coming out; on the 7th of June 1984, when an elderly, 70 years old, Sikh came out to answer the call of nature, he was shot dead in cold blood. Here too the Army showered the Gurdwara building with bullets, one could see several signs of them even on the 14th of June; at Chamkaur Sahib 14 Sikh youngmen were arrested.[55] At Muktsar, the Army was still very aggressive; it put siege to the historical shrine Darbar Sahib; like Chamkaur here too no one allowed entering or coming out; the Army suddenly began firing at the Gurdwara; the vistors who had gone there to make obeisance could not have dreamt that the Army could attack that Gurdwara too as there had never been any miltant action in that town. In the firing by the Army several Sikhs were killed; the rest were arrested by the Army; the arrested were treated mercilessly; their hands and legs were tied with their turbans; they were kicked and hit with rifle buts. When a detainee requested for water he was abused; when some one requested for first aid, he was shot dead. During those days, kar sewa (voluntary service) of the Gurdwara building was being done by (Baba) Harbans Singh; the Army detained him too; he and his attendants and other volunteers were searched, harassed, insulted and kicked. The Army action continued for several days. Several Sikhs died here; the Army put their bodies in trailors and trollies and carried them outside the toen and burnt them by putting kerosene oil and diesel on them. Here, the Army ran amuck and desecrated the Gurdwara time and again; they smoked even the main hall; besides, the Army broke open the golak (the box where people put cash offerings) and took away the money; the stores of the the kitchen and other movable precious articles of the Gurdwara were also plundered. The same happened at Tarn Taran, Moga, Fatehgarh Sahib, Chowk Mehta, the dera of Bhindran-Mehta Jatha, and several other Gurdwaras where a large number of innocent Sikhs were killed by the Indian Army. It is intriguingly astonishing that the savagery of the Army, killing of and hatred for the Sikhs was alike at all the places in the Punjab; it seems that before launching attack on the Punjab, the soldiers had been briefed for this treatment. Another important point for record is that the Army did not sieze any arms from any Gurdwara in the Punjab. . [1] Darshi, op. cit, pp. 109-110. [2] It is allegded that he was a senior member of the Nirankari cult, which had killed 13 Sikhs in 1978. [3] According to A.R. Darshi, General Gauri Shankar was appointed as the Security Advsor to the Governor and R. S. Dyal was ‘immediate subordinate’ to Lt. General Sunderji. (The Gallant Fighter, p. 109). [4] Such heavy artillery, which is used only in open field battles, was arrayed against the defenders of Darbar Sahib, on a Complex where thousands of pilgrims were staying for the night; no warning was given; no one was asked to surrender. [5] The Indian Army had already brought several tanks and at least 13 tanks were used in this ‘Operation’. [6] Later, Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha punished General Vaidya in his own city Pune, on the 10th of August 1986; both were, later, arrested and sentenced to death; they were hanged on the 9th of October 1992. [7] According to a hearsay account, a Sikh boy of 16 years of age, who had tied explosives to his body, jumped before the tank and destroyed it; and, due to this the tank got bogged down near the Baba Deep Singh Memorial; much later it had to be removed with much difficulty. [8] Oppression in Punjab, p. 61. [9] Chellaney, Brahma, An Eye Account, an article in Abida Samiuddin’s book, The Punjab Crisis: Chanllenge and Response (Delhi, 1985), p. 181. [10] Sunday Times, dated 17.6.1984. [11] For the Sikhs it was not the first unequal battle; they had already fought battles at Chamkaur (7-8.12.1705), Muktsar (29.12.17065), Lohgarh (29-30.11.1710), Gurdas Nangal (April to Decemebr 1715), Akal Takht Amritsar (1.12.1764), Saragarhi etc where a few of them fought against thousands of invaders. [12] Tully, op, cit, 175. [13] Darshi, A.R., op. cit., p. 112. [14] Later, these signs were removed by the S.G.P.C. when Tohra was the President and Manjit Singh Calcutta was the Secretary. [15] This volume of Guru Granth Sahib too had been hit by a bullet; this was a handwritten volume from 1830. [16] Surya, August 1984; Nayyar, op cit, p. 102. [17] Daily Observer, dated 9.6.1984. [18] It is not true that the buildings had been destroyed in crossfire; the miltants had not fired a single shot on the buildings adjascent to Darbar Sahib or around it; the militants aimed only at the soldiers trying to proceed towards Akal Takht; hence the houses were destroyed by the shelling by the Army. [19] Daily Guardian, dated 26.6.1984. [20] Daly Telegraph, dated 15.6.1984. [21] In September 1984 Rajiv Gandhi had admitted this figure as 700. (Nayyar, op. cit., P. 108); later, the Army too admitted that ‘troops had to pay high price and suffered heavy casualties’ (Harminder Kaur, op. cit., p 47). [22] White Paper, p. 169. [23] Nayyar, op. cit, p. 109. [24] Brar, K.S., Operation Blue Star (Delhi 1992). [25] Sarna, Jasbir Singh, History o f Sikh Students Federation, (unpublished). [26] This is confirmed by Brahma Challeney also: “the Sikhs killed during the attack were shot at point-blank range, with their hands tied at the back with their turbans.” (op. cit. p. 185): [27] Kumar, Ram Narayan and George Sieberer, The Sikh Struggle (Delhi 1991), p. 265. [28] Mary Anne Weaver, in The Sunday Times, dated 10.6.1984. [29] Darshi, A.R., op. cit., p. 116. [30] Bhanwar, Harbir Singh, in his book Diary de Panne has given details of such acts; also see ‘Oppression in Punjab’ by C.F.D. [31] Though most of the Sikhs present in the Darbar Sahib Complex had been killed by the Army in cold blood, still more than 350 of those who had been arrested from the headquarters of the S.G.P.C. were taken to the Army cantonement (some of them died there for want of water as they had been kept in a small confined place where they were not allowed even water; it being the hottest day of he years many of them died); those who survived were, later, lodged in Jodhpur Jail (in Rajashan); they were not tried by any court and were not released for many years; may of them had already become insane before they were released. [32] Thukral, Gobind, Atrocities on Sikh Children, a report published in weekly India Today, dated 30.9.1984, Kumar, Ram Narayan, op. cit., p. 291. [33] Oppression in Punjab, pp. 76-77. [34] There were about 20000 books, about 500 handwritten volumes of Guru Granth Sahib and several relics. (The Tribune, dated 4.7.1984). [35] Oppression in the Punjab, pp. 66-67. [36] Ibid, p. 31 (statement of Kirpal Singh). [37]Kirepaker, Subash, in The Punjab Story, edited by Kuldip Nayyar and Khushwant Singh, op. cit, p. 83. [38] All this was carried under the supervision of Ramesh Inder Singh, the then D.C.of Amritsar. [39] Chellany, op. cit., p. 182. [40] Monthly Probe India, August 1984. [41] Statement of Bhan Singh in Harbir Singh Bhanwar’s Diary de Panne. [42] Indian Express, dated 12.6.1984 [43] While speaking on the Indian Government’s ‘White Paper on Punjab Situation’, on the 25th of July 184, in the Lok Sabha, Vajpayee said: “First of all I want to congratulate those officers who freed Harmandir Sahib, sacred to all the Indians, from terrorists by sacrificing their lives and putting their precious lives in danger…The army had been given a delocate responsibility and the army should be felicitated for accomplishing their duty efficiently and bravely…” (Proceedings of the Lok Sabha, dated 25.7.1984). [44] Hindustan Times dated 10.6.1984. The B.J.P. leaders went to the extent of calling her ‘Durga’ a fictitious Hindu goddess which was shown defeating the demons in fiction works. [45] He called it ‘swift, yet restrained, operation in flushing out terrorists from Golden Temple Comlex’ (Hindustan Times, dated 10.6.1984). [46] Indian Express, dated 8.6.1984. [47] Ibid. [48] Ibid. [49] Ibid. [50] Hindustan Times, dated 8.6.1984. [51] Later, Chandersheikhar sent a fact finding team to the Punjab to know the truth. But, in 1991, when Chander Sheikhar had bocame the Prime Minister of India, in collaboration with and under the blessing of Rajiv Gandhi, he exhibited an altogher different attitude; rather he behaved as a fanatic Hindu and even went to the extent of threatening another masscare of the Sikhs. Earlier he had been demanding an apology for this invasion but when he captured power he himself did not apologise (even other Prime Ministers e.g. I. K. Gujjral, V.P. Sinh, Devegauda, Vajpayee, and even puppet primi minister Manohan Singh, never apologised for attack on Darbar Sahib and atrocities committed on the Sikhs, in spite of the fact that they had known the truth behind the attack; they simply called it ‘sad’, ‘unfortunatee’ and ‘it should not happen again’). [52] Monthly Surya, July 1984. [53] Ibid. [54] The Sunday Times, dated 10.6.1984, Nayyar, Kuldip, op. cit., p. 56. [55] Indian Express, dated 15.6.1984. [/QUOTE]
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