Indian
Army’s attack on Darbar Sahib: the Untold Story
Dr
Harjinder Singh Dilgeer*
Why did Indira
Gandhi attack Darbar Sahib ?
The Background
Although Indira Gandhi had re-captured
power from the Janta Party Alliance and had become P.M. again on the 14th
of January 1980, but she knew that she had won those elections due to negative
votes cast by voters against the Janta Party’s infighting; and, now, she had no
new agenda for the next elections and about half of the term of Lok Sabha had
passed, so she began thinking over several fronts; first she deliberated upon
using the Tamil issue (in Sri Lanka) but it would not have yielded her much
gains because it would have affected only Tamil or at the mos
t Dravid votes,
most of which were already with her, especially when the B.J.P. was her main
opposition the South would support her because of its (South’s) clash with
north on the issue of language and culture. Hence, to capture a high chunk of
north Indian votes she (Indira Gandhi) needed to show something startling;
hence she decided to use the Sikh card; and, for this purpose, she had to
outstrip the B.J.P. and other fundamentalist and fanatic Hindu organisations to
ensure the Hindus that ‘only the Congress can safeguard the interests of the
Hindus’; this she could have achieved only by first establishing the Sikhs as
‘enemies of the Hindus as well as India’ and then by crushing them with all
might.
With all this in her mind, Indira
Gandhi decided to use the Indian Army, the R.A.W. (the Indian intelligence network),
the I.B. (Intelligence Bureau) and all the media for an all out attack on the
Sikhs.
Under this move Indira Gandhi
decided to attack on the very heart of Sikhism i.e. Darbar Sahib Amritsar; she
wanted to teach the Sikhs such a lesson that, what to talk of demanding their
rights, they should never be able to raise their heads as honourable people; it
included mass killings, desecration of their shrines, destruction of their
archives, libraries and museums, their history and heritage; to create a permanent
physical, social and psychological awe in their minds to make them realise that
they had no pride, no civic, religious or human rights; and they were slaves
and third rate beings (not humans).
Preparing Ground
for invasion
To execute this agenda, Indira
Gandhi decided to first create hatred in the mind of the Hindus in order to get
their full-fledged support for herself and for her actions as well as disdain
for the Sikhs; hence she had to present the Sikhs as criminals, killers of the
Hindus, fanatics, fundamentalists and ferocious persons; and, on the other
hand, to present the Hindus, especially of the Punjab as innocent people and
peaceful citizens and victims of terrorism. To achieve this agenda she had to
unite all the Hindu fanatics under one umbrella and one slogan: ‘hate the
Sikhs, they are traitors, they are enemies of the Hindus, they are danger to
the sovereignty of the country.’
Indira’s next move was to use all
the media, Indian as well as foreign, by provoking or/and by bribing them, through
national and international political manoeuvring and even through commercial
publicity agencies; and it was a part of her strategy that the Sikhs should not
be able to get international support or sympathy and they should rather be
presented as ‘Sikh terrorists’ and not militants or Khalistanis or freedom
fighters, or victims of state terrorism. She sent missions, she financed
journalists and news agencies, she held dinner parties to the media folk and
sent precious gifts to writers, journalists and press correspondents; and,
through her own official and national media she launched an all out war against
the Sikhs.
The next move was to create
differences and dissension, conflict and rebellion among the Sikh organisations
so that they should point out their guns towards each other; this could have
been doubly useful: firstly, a civil war among the Sikhs leading to destruction
or at least major losses and a state of standstill in their struggle; and,
secondly it would become an excuse to pounce upon them in many a way.
With this colossal plan, she
entrusted job to the RAW and she began seeking help from the Russian K.G.B.,
the Israeli MOSSAD, the American C.I.A. and the British intelligence; none of
them, perhaps, knew that she was in touch with the others and/or she was using
all of them.
At home front Indira Gandhi did not
fully trust the R.A.W and/or the I.B., hence she created a new agency under the
code name Third Agency; she herself
was the in charge of this ‘Agency’; her son Rajiv Gandhi and Arun Nehru were
her main advisors;[1] all the plan regarding the
Punjab had been chalked out and executed by this Third Agency;[2]it
had three main objectives: (1) to clinch the Hindu votes in the rest of the
country by giving the Sikh community a punch on the nose; (2) to take the wind
out of the Opposition’s sail by doing exactly what they had been saying the
Government should do: ‘attack Darbar Sahib’; (3) to test the efficiency of a
Third Intelligence Agency camouflaged by a blundering R.A.W. and inefficient I.B.[3]
According to Surya, three things
prove the total involvement of the Government and its intelligence network in
the Punjab operation: (1) all the senior intelligence officers serving in the
Punjab, Rajasthan, J & K sector during the Akali agitation have either been
promoted, recommended for a police medal or sent abroad; (2) most of the arms
that were found in the Darbar Sahib, in 1984, had been smuggled into the
country through Rajasthan under the actual supervision and/or connivance of a
RAW officer; (3) S.K. Tripathi, in charge of RAW at Amritsar, from mid 1982 to
the 3rd of May 1984, had sent a coded telegram to Delhi with details
of an impending attack on more than 40 railway stations in the Punjab – and the
Government chose nothing to do about it. Surya
asserts that the ‘Third Agency’ was formed only to aid the Congress Party
(Indira Gandhi) in its election campaign[4]
(to use the Sikh card).
“The Third Agency had its office at
Bikaner House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi; to camouflage it a Board bearing the
nomenclature ‘Cabinet Secretariat (Security) was hung at the gate of its
office. This ‘Agency’ was masterminded by R.N. Kao (Chief Security Advisor to
Indira Gandhi); other important organisers included: N.F. Santook (former chief
of the RAW), G.C. Saxena (later chief of RAW), and R. Shankaran Nair (Director
P.M.’s Secretariat) etc.”[5] H.
S. Kriplani (a RAW man) who was expert in planning secret murders, was made in
charge of the Punjab and was given charge of clandestine assassinations in the
Punjab; he was also assigned the job of ‘gun smuggling operations’; Rabinder
Ohri (Assistant Director RAW) operated from Rajasthan and coordinated with H.S.
Kriplani (in smuggling of weapons); later, W.N.B. Rao (another Assistant
Director RAW) took over from Ohri; after this R.N. Gupta (Assistant Director
RAW) replaced Rao and supervised operations in Rajasthan; he remained on this
‘job’ till December 1983. Similarly, A.I. Vasuvada (another RAW officer)
remained the in charge of Amritsar till summer of 1982; it was he who
master-minded the action at Chowk Mehta on the 20th of September
1981 (it was carried through Awtar Singh Atwal, D.I.G. Punjab Police, which led
to killing of several Sikhs); in 1982 he was replaced by S.K. Tripathi who
planned murders of the Hindus as well as burning of 47 railway stations; after
accomplishing his ‘job’ he returned to Delhi on the 3rd of May 1984.[6]
Another remarkable feature of these operations was that she frequently
transferred the ‘Third Agency’ officers in the Punjab so that none should have
complete picture of her plan; even the Governors of the Punjab were transferred
with short intervals; Jai Sukh Lal Hathi remained Governor till August 1981;
his successor Amin-ud-Din was replaced in April 1982; he was succeeded by
Chenna Reddy and then A.P. Sharma, the last to be replaced by her most
confident man B.D. Pandey (in August 1983) who remained in office up to the 28th
of June 1984. The chiefs of the Punjab Police too were replaced with the
extra-ordinary speed: Birbal Nath was succeeded by C.K. Sahni who was replaced
by Indira Gandhi’s favourite man Pritam Singh Bhinder who remained in office up
to the attack on Darbar Sahib (later he was replaced by K.S. Dhillon).[7]
Now, Indira Gandhi began preparations
for attack on Darbar Sahib; but before this invasion she began another era of
violence. Her ‘Third Agency’ created atmosphere for multi-way violence: (1)
Killings by the Police and the C.R.P.F., (2) Killings of the Sikhs in Haryana
(under patronage of Bhajan Lal, the then chief minister of Haryana); (3)
Terrorist actions by fanatic Hindus terrorist groups (4) Clandestine murders;
and on the other side (1) provoke and promote demonstrations and disturbances
in the name of the Akalis; (2) create situation to make Sikh leaders issue aggressive
and provocative statements; (3) manoeuvre promotion of disdain and enmity among
various Sikh groups, both political and militants; (4) clandestine killings of
the militants to be attributed to the Akalis or rival militant groups: i.e. the
state of ushering civil war among the Sikhs; hence chaos in the Sikh world.
The Indian Army
assigned job of attack on Darbar Sahib
In the summer of 1983, Indira Gandhi
asked Lt General S. K. Sinha, then vice-chief of the Indian Army to prepare a
position paper for an assault on Darbar Sahib; but, when he strongly advised
her against taking such a step;[8] as
a result he was transferred to Army Headquarters; later, he chose to seek
pre-mature retirement. Now Arun Shridhar Vaidya was appointed the Chief of Army
with Lt. General Krishna Swamy Sunderji (General Officer Commander in chief of
the Western Command) as vice Chief. In September 1983, Indira Gandhi asked
Vaidya and Sunderji to prepare a position paper for an attack on Darbar sahib
and he agreed immediately; it (position paper) was ready by the end of December
1983; Indira Gandhi studied it for two weeks and, on the Indian Army Day, on
the 15th of January 1984, she gave final instructions to General
Sunderji to make preparations for attack.[9]
In the third week of January 1984, a
commando force of 600 soldiers was selected from different units of the Indian
Army; they were sent to make rehearsals for an assault on Darbar Sahib Complex,
and, for this purpose a life size replica of the Darbar Sahib complex was built
in the hills of Chakrata (near Dehradun), about 240 kilometres from Delhi. In
January 1984, after accomplishment of the mission of practice of mock attack on
Darbar Sahib Complex, Indira Gandhi was briefed about the completion of the
preparations for attack; between February and May 1984 Indira Gandhi alerted
the Army three times but each time she vetoed the invasion; ‘a case of nerves’
as per a senior aide.[10]
As mentioned in the previous
chapter, the Third Agency had escalated violence in the Punjab in order to
justify an attack on Darbar Sahib; in 1981 there occurred just 28 incidents of
violence in the Punjab, in 1982 the number was just 33; in 1983 when the Third
Agency began its action for final round the number of incidents of violence
rose to 138 but after this when the Commandos had completed their mock battle
in Chakrata hill, number of incidents of violence began rising, and, just in
five month (from the 27th of January to the 2nd of June
1984) 364 incidents of violence took place; of these 22 occurred in the first
two days of June although the army had already taken positions in the Punjab on
the 31st of May; even out of the incidents 90% were of frivolous
nature hence of no significance; after Indira Gandhi gave the first order
(which was postponed) to attack Darbar Sahib, incidents of violence increased
with high speed so that attack on Darbar Sahib may be fully justified. Thus the
activities of the Third Agency and political manoeuvring of Indira Gandhi
outwitted not only hazy minded Akalis but also the Hindus and the other
political Parties. Indira Gandhi never disclosed her hidden aims, all this
time. Indira Gandhi Government kept on repeating that Armed Forces will not
enter Golden Temple Complex.[11]
Though Indira Gandhi had made all
preparations for attack on Darbar Sahib but as a drama she continued having
dialogue with the Akalis; she had performed this ‘drama’ several times earlier
too; during Tri-Party Talks ‘three times
in six months an agreement was reached and three times she backed out’; she
again backed out when Swaran Singh tried to mediate; she uses dilly-dallying
tactics when the ‘Punjabi Group’[12]
came up with a ‘formula’ in April 1984; in fact ‘Mrs Gandhi had other
intentions’;[13] even Ravinder Singh Ravi,
a professor of Punjabi University, tried to mediate; his efforts too met with
almost similar treatment; none of them knew that Indira Gandhi was just playing
drama of negotiations, she had already planned to attack Darbar Sahib and cash
the Sikh Card to capture a big junk of Hindu votes.[14]
The last drama of show of
negotiations with the Akalis was played from March to May 1984; the Akali
leaders met the Government delegations on the 27th, 28th
and 29th of March, on the 21st of April and on the 26th
of May,[15]
the last meeting took place on the 27th of May 1984;[16]
in the final meeting an agreement was reached with the Akalis and they were
told that the same will be ‘announced after getting approval from Madam’; in fact this was just a drama
because on that day (the 27th of May) orders had already been issued
to the Indian Army to proceed towards Amritsar (an advance party of the Indian
Army had taken positions around Darbar Sahib on the 30th of May).
On one hand Indira Gandhi had
dispatched orders on the other hand a message was sent to the Akalis that ‘Madam’ had not approved the agreement;
at this the Akalis announced that if their demand were not accepted by the 2nd
of June 1984, they will launch a Non-cooperation Movement from the 3rd
of June; however, the Intelligence Bureau, the Government, almost everyone knew
that the Akalis won’t launch any such Movement, they will just continue holding
demonstrations and rallies and court arrests.
Before finally attacking Darbar
Sahib, Indira Gandhi had prepared ground; a mutual distrust had already been
created between the Sikhs and the Hindus; the Sikhs were been projected as anti
Hindu, killers of Hindus, as well as separatist, Khalistanis,
anti-nationalists, ‘agents of Pakistan’, traitors, extremists (attvaadi/ dahishatgarad),
fundamentalist, fanatics etc. The Government media, the A.I.R., T.V. were
presenting the militants as the ‘Sikh terrorists’; and this hate-propaganda was
so aggressive that not only the B.J.P.[17]
but even the other non-communal Opposition Parties, including both Communist
Parties, vied each other in condemning and denigrating Sikhs and demanding a
military action against Bhindranwala particularly and Darbar Sahib generally;
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Chowdhry Charan Sinh,[18]
Shiv Sena, Hindu Suraksha Samiti, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Brigade, Vishav Hindu
Prishad, Arya Samaj all spoke in the same language; they were so ignorant that
they could not read the mind of the notorious and mischievous woman; it is
surprising that Harkishan Surjeet (of the C.P.M.), too sailed in the same boat
in spite of the fact that he himself had been a part and parcel of negotiating
team and he knew that it was Indira Gandhi who was the real culprit as she did
not want a political solution and she had ‘other intentions.’
Execution of
attack on Darbar Sahib
Army takes over
the reins of the Punjab
Indira Gandhi issued orders for
attack on Darbar Sahib under the code name of ‘Operation Blue Star’; on the 27th
of May 1984 the troops left for Amritsar by rail, road and even by air; five
Corps of Army (the 1st, the 2nd, the 10th, the
11th, and the 15th) had reached the Punjab on the 30th
of May and the Army was still on the move. On the 31st of May, a
meeting of the operating generals was held at Chandimandir (near Chandigarh) at
the headquarters of ‘Core 2’ unit of the Indian Army; it was attended by
officers of the Army, Air Force and Navy which included Lt. General K.
Sunderji, K.S. Brar, R.S. Dyal and others; Sunderji had been Commander of a
regiment in the Indo-Pak War of 1965, R.S. Dyal had been a Major of a Parachute
Regiment in the same War. This meeting discussed and planned to attack and
occupy Darbar Sahib in just 24 hours; the whole ‘action’ was broadly divided
into two parts: attack on Darbar Sahib (under code ‘Operation Blue Star’) and
sealing of border between India and Pakistan (‘Operation Wood Rose’); operation
of the sealing of the border was assigned to 11 Core Unit, Lt. General K. Gauri
Shankar was the chief of this ‘Operation’.
The advanced unit of commandos had
already taken positions around Darbar Sahib, right in the evening of the 30th
of May. Although secret agents and the intelligence network of the Government
had already given almost complete picture of the inside of the Darbar Sahib
Complex but still, on the 1st of June, Major General K. S. Brar,
Captain Jasbir Raina, Lt. Colonel K. S. Randhawa, Brigadier D. V. Rao and
Colonel Fernandes (who had reached Amritsar early in the morning of the 1st
of June) went into the Darbar Sahib in plain clothes and had a round of the
whole of the Complex to assess fortification.
On the 1st of June 1984,
the C.R.P.F. and the B.S.F. which had taken positions on all the tall buildings
around Darbar Sahib since long,[19]
suddenly began firing at Darbar Sahib without giving any warning; it was, in
fact, an attempt to provoke the militants to retaliate, which would have given
a chance to the Indian Army to assess which weapons did they have, what was the
standard of their strength, where were their posts from which they could have
attacked the Army. On the other hand, General Subeg Singh, commander of all the
operations of the miltants, understood the strategy of the Indian Army; hence
he gave orders not to give any reaction. This firing continued for more than
five hours (12.40 noon to 7 p.m.), killing 8 Sikh devotees including a woman
and a child) and wounding more than 25;[20]
the central building of Darbar Sahib itself had been hit by bullets where there
were at least 34 bullet marks.[21]When
the firing was going on, Harchand Singh Longowal, President of Akali Dal, tried
to contact Zail Singh, the President of India, but in spite of making several
telephone calls, Zail Singh could not be reached; all the time Zail’s Secretary
kept on saying that he was not available; in fact Zail was avoiding[22]
because he knew all about the plan of the attack on Darbar Sahib and the firing
of the 1st of June was a part of that. Meanwhile, Longowal succeeded
in contacting B.D. Pandey, the Governor of the Punjab, who confessed that he
won’t be able to do anything because ‘the orders were coming straight from New
Delhi'.[23]This
action was repeated on the 2nd of June 1984 when 32 bullets hit the
building of Akal Takht from its backside; here too, the army wanted to test the
reactions of the Sikh militants in order to know their positions from where
they would be firing in situation of an attack by the Army.
Preparations by
the defenders of Darbar Sahib
The conspiracy to attack Darbar
Sahib had been chalked out in the summer of 1983 and this planning had been
leaked out to General Subeg Singh; he discussed the same with Baba Jarnail
Singh; at first the latter resolved to leave Darbar Sahib and offer his arrest
(as he had done in Chowk Mehta on the 20th of September 1981) in
order to Save Darbar Sahib from military attack but then General Subeg Singh
told him that the conspiracy to attack was not simply due to him and rather it
was with an intention to ‘teach a lesson to the Sikhs’; at this Baba Jarnail
Singh decided that the Indian Army should also ‘be taught a lesson as per Sikh
traditions’ and the Indian Army should be given a fight like that of the 1st
of December 1764 when 30 Sikhs fought against 30000 Durrani and Baloch soldiers
at the same site. After this, General Subeg Singh had begun making preparations
for combating the invading Indian forces. General Subeg Singh was an expert of
guerrilla war; he had achieved great success in 1971 when the Indian Army
fought a guerrilla war against the Pakistani Army in the battle of Bangla Desh;
hence he knew how to stop advances of the enemy forces; thus he planned to give
such a fight to the Indian Army that would be known as the greatest battle of
resistance in the history of the world. But, Bhindranwala had just a few Sikh
youth, most of them had never touched even a gun; but all of them were ready to
sacrifice their lives for preserving the honour of Darbar Sahib and the Sikh
Panth (and they proved what General Subeg
Singh said; the battle of Darbar Sahib will be ‘the greatest battle of resistance in the history of the world’).
Truth is that General Subeg Singh was ‘real
hero of the war of Bangla Desh’ though the credit went to General Arora because
the latter was chief of the Army at that time; and, General Subeg Singh was
the real hero of the battle of June 1984 too.
Indira Gandhi’s
broadcast from the A.I.R.:
Though Indira Gandhi had ordered
attack on Darbar Sahib but she was scared; right from the 27th of
May 1984, when she had signed final orders, she had been nervous, her behaviour
had turned queer, her voice choked all these days; during this period she had
called a closed-door meeting of Congress activists from all over India, and, on
the 2nd of June 1984, “when
she walked up to the platform she appeared to be limping; her shoulders were
hunched; she looked dishevelled; her face was drawn; she choked as she spoke;
it looked like if someone in her family had died”.[24]
A few hours later, in the late hours
of the evening of the 2nd of June, Indira Gandhi made an unscheduled
broadcast from the A.I.R.; in her broadcast she blamed the Akalis for not
having reached agreement (which was a lie
as it was she who backed out at least three times); she stated that she had
accepted all the demands of the Akalis i.e. sale of tobacco, liquor and meat
had been banned in demarcated area in the walled city of Amritsar (this too was lie), consultations were
being made for an All India Gurdwara Act (this
was just a gossip), a Tribunal headed by a Supreme Court Judge was being
constituted to decide distribution of water dispute (the Akalis had demanded that the case should be decided by the Supreme
Court and not a Tribunal, but, she did not trust the Supreme Court), a
Commission was being appointed to decide the issue of Chandigarh, Abohar,
Fazilka and other Punjabi or Hindi speaking areas (this was a blatant lie), Sarkaria Commission has been appointed to
submit its report on Centre-State relations (only
this part was true; but Sarkaria Commission had been appointed on the 24th
of March 1983 i.e. more than 14 months earlier). She said that the
Government had accepted their demands but they were raising fresh demands all
the time (this too was a lie), and,
they have announced launching of a non cooperation Movement from the 3rd
of June. In the end she played another drama by saying: ‘Even at this late
hour, I appeal to the Akali leaders to call off their threatened agitation and
accept the framework of peaceful settlement which we have offered. She ended
her speech with the words “Don’t shed blood,
shed hatred”;[25]
it was like devil giving sermons
because when she was speaking from the A.I.R. the Indian Army had already taken
positions around Darbar Sahib three days earlier to that and had also
surrounded more than 70 Gurdwaras and had been firing at Darbar Sahib for the
past two days; and it (Indian Army) was ready to play with ‘blood’ and dissipate and practice ‘hatred’. Commenting upon this Kuldip
Nayyar observed: ‘How could she first
order military operation and then suggest negotiations? And even if the Akalis
were ready to talk, how could they contact her, all the telephones had been cut
off.’[26]
(turning text into bold and
Italic letters is my action – author).
Events Relating
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 with a large
quantity of weapons were seen everywhere 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 overall command of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi
assisted by Arun Nehru, Arun Sinh, and K. P. Sinh Deo (Deputy Defence
Minister).[27] The same day, R. S. Dayal[28]
(Chief of Staff Western Command) took over as the Advisor Security[29]
to the 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 just to obey orders 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
Before formally launching the attack the
Army needed formal signatures from the 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 Ramesh Inder Singh (when Parkash Singh
Badal became C.M. in 1997, he 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 surveillance of the Army); Ramesh Inder
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 of the Parachute
Regiment from 1st battalion, 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), at the Ghanta Ghar
(clock tower) gate of Darbar Sahib; the Babar Khalsa group took positions 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) and the tower of Baba
Atal Gurdwara.
The Launching of
the Invasion by the Indian Army
In the morning of the 4th
of June, the Army was assigned job like this: (a) North-west zone of Darbar
Sahib Complex (Ghanta Ghar to Akal Takht) = one Infantry Unit, one Para
Commandos, one Company Special Border Force [S.S.F.] (b) Darbar Sahib itself =
one unit (c) South-east zone of Darbar Sahib Complex (Ata Mandi, Sikh Reference
Library, Baba Atal, Manji Sahib) = one Infantry Battalion (d) reserve for all
these three = one Infantry Battalion (e) siege of Darbar Sahib = one Infantry
Battalion.
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 the Operation.
At 4.40 a.m. the final assault of
the ‘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;[30]
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
militants and the pilgrims staying there to spend night, survived this savage
attack.
Now the Army dropped its specially
trained parachute commandos through helicopters; however all of them were
killed even before kanding; some of them even drowned in the Amritsar (tank).[31]
The Army had not expected it so the generals were greatly shocked.
After this, 50 specially trained
commandos of the ‘10 Guard’ unit moved towards ‘Ghanta Ghar entrance’ of the
Darbar Sahib complex; 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
imputed; he remained handicapped for the rest of his life). When this batch of
the commandos too had been eliminated, Para Commandos and the S.S.F. took their
place to move towards Akal Takht. Hundreds of soldiers, in batches of 25 each,
tried to reach Akal Takht so that they should throw poisonous gas canisters and
‘stun bombs’ inside the Takht building to kill or make unconscious the Sikhs
present there; but none of them could proceed even a few metres towards Akal
Takht; all of them were killed; some of them tried to proceed by crawling but
they too were killed by a machinegun which the Sikh fighters had set on the
floor; by 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 dead
bodies 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
boomeranged and harmed the Army. As per an army officer, who was commanding a
part of this operation, ‘when all the army commandos trying to proceed towards
the building of Akal Takht were cut down by militants, on the night of the 5th
of June the military operation had to be temporarily suspended because of
disaster.’[32]
On the other hand, in the evening of
the 5th of June, 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 adjacent 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. Gen. K.C. Padda,
along with his Subedar Major and 30 specially trained commandos tried to
advance but all of them were killed. By this time the Army had occupied the
building adjacent to Thara Sahib (a few metres from Akal Takht) and began
shelling Akal Takht and throwing gas shells; and with this 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 (Army’s) advance; now
the Army 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 Ata Mandi side; 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 had to be sent to help it.
After a pitched battle and loss of
hundreds of soldiers, the India Army finally succeeded 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 throwing 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 northern 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 off the building of 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 him to target only Akal Takht; within half an hour this group
began its action; hundreds of shells were fired but the Indian Army could not
advance even a centimetre; and the losses of the Army were very high. At this
Diwan and Brar decided to bring in tanks;[33]
Brar contacted Sunderji, the Chief of ‘Blue Star Operation’ on walkie-talkie
who further the got approval of Indira Gandhi through General Vaidya,[34]
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 continue
long because the wires of the bulb of the search light got fused after one
minute;[35]
now the Army brought in another tank; this too met the same fate; then a third
tank was also brought in.[36]
At that time it was dark and the helicopter helped the Army in identifying the
targets for attack. “The helicopters hovered above and continued 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 balls would land on the targets causing havoc. We saw a large number
of boys blown to pieces.” [37]
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 at the building 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 militants, fell upon this A.P.C.
and it got jammed there and then.
Now, Brar got orders from Indira
Gandhi to totally blast Akal Takht building with the help of the tanks; at 5.10
a.m. Indira Gandhi called General A. S. Vaidya, the Chief Commander of Army,
and after consulting him 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 militants had in fact not attacked them deliberately and allowed
them to proceed and when they reached there all of them were killed. Even by
6.20 a.m. on the 6th of June, 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
militants let them to continue moving ahead, but when they reached the stairs,
the militants pounced upon them and took them inside 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 shells 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 700,000 was plunged into
darkness by a powerful outrage. Half an hour later, Amritsar was shaken by
powerful shelling, mortar explosions and machine-gun fire. The big battle had
begun. Half the city was on rooftops watching the battle. Tracer bullets and
flares lit up the crescent moon sky. The explosion at Golden Temple rattled
doors and windows miles away. While the battle was raging, the state run radio
claimed that the city was ‘calm’.”[38]
To quote an eye-witness account: “From my vantage point I could see some of
the army trucks and jeeps mounted with the guns moving. On Monday evening,
rumbled in the tanks. The hotel staff, who had little to do, also watched the
gun battles from time to time during the three days and three nights that I
spent up on the terrace. So fierce was the firing that the crescends created by
the vast quantities of ammunition expended became almost deafening at times.
This was especially so when the tanks opened fire. Like a clap of thunder, the
sound reverberated across the thousands of houses making little children cry
and women shriek. Stray bullets whistled past overhead and we had often to duck
or take shelter behind the tanks. I collected some used bullets as ‘souvenirs’.
At night, the burst of fire from a variety of guns, including 25 pounders, lit
up the sky over Amritsar. The bullets and other ammunition sped in every
direction, forming patterns of red streaks.”[39]
In spite of using tanks, helicopters,
and the world’s renowned latest top-most guns, the mighty Indian Army had not
been able to reach near the building of Akal Takht. According to the
correspondent of the Suday times London,[40]
15000 troops took part in the assault, 35000 standing by to put down any
possible internal rebellion; it further says: ‘Not even in the more ruthless days of the Empire (English Empire
in India) had the army been used to storm
such an important religious building’; besides the 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); 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 one of the great historic unequal battle in the history of
world in which, on one side there were about one hundred 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 anything whereas the invading army had full supplies of everything; it
was unequal battle perhaps the greatest event of military history of the world.[41]
On the midnight between the 6th
and 7th of June, Baba Bhindranwala, 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
building of Akal Takht has been badly damaged; 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
whosoever can escape from that place must do so; when someone 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 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
militants 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, the remaining militants 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 militants 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. The soldiers of
the Indian Army tied the dead body of Major 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 dead
body which show that ropes had been tied around his arms and he was dragged
before he died.[42]
Mark Tully is wrong that Subeg Singh was caught alive and tortured to death; in
fact, he was already dead and it was the dead body that had been dragged).
Though on the 8th of
June, the Indian Army had captured the Darbar Sahib complex, troops still had
to battle pockets of resistance inside the complex and intermittent sound of
mortar and machine-gun continued to be heard all over the town…[43]The
stench of death pervaded the temple neighbourhood and it was ‘suffocatingly
difficult to live.’ Authorities had cut power and water supply to the Golden
Temple and its neighbourhoods before the siege began; people had been without
power and water in temperature of 104 degree Farnheit; and to add to that
misery, the heavy gunfire, shelling and mortar and grenade explosions inside
the temple brought chemical fumes to houses in that zone.[44]
The 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, around 125, 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 seventy-two
hours, 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.
Devastations
inside and around Darbar Sahib
After the battle was over, though
the Kotha Sahib (where Guru Granth
Sahib was kept every night) had been damaged but most of the rest of the
building of Akal Takht had turned into rubbles, 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 see 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...”[45]
A day after the Army finally
occupied Akal Takht, it presented Kirpal Singh, the caretaker of the Takht
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 for about four months, i.e. up to September 1984.
Not only Akal Takht, Ramgarhia Bunga
and water tank but even the Darbar Sahib had been badly damaged; there were
more than 350 signs of bullets on this building.[46]
When the Indian Army occupied Akal Takht, two Sikhs, one of whom was blind of
both eyes, were still there inside 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;[47]
later he was identified as Bhai Awtar Singh of Purowal.[48]
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 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;
however, 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 burnt.
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, outside their damaged homes. Foreign reporters have not
been allowed inside the inner walled city which has been badly damaged by
shell-fire. Four of the seven bazaars have been hit by shells and partly
destroyed.”[49]
To quote another newspaper: “Hundreds of houses and shops surrounding the
Temple, the hub of the city, were reduced to rubble in the crossfire.[50] 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 cannot be
recovered till the entire area is demolished. The destruction has left nearly
30000 people homeless.”[51]
According to the correspondent 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.”[52] (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 paramilitary forces; hence it was not possible to smuggle them
into the Complex without the consent or collaboration of the Government or the
forces. Furthermore the total number of the weapons exhibited was not more than
250; commenting on this General Jagjit Arora (of Bangladesh fame) said: ‘Not
more than 250 persons would have used them.’
How Many Persons
were killed by the Indian Army?
The Government of India’s ‘White
Paper’ (which is just a bundle of lies) claims that 83 soldiers[53]
and 493 Sikhs were killed in the Army attack; it also mentions that 59 persons
died or were injured in other Gurdwaras[54].
It is intriguing that a Government is not willing to tell truth about the
casualties. The non-official accounts mention the number of the casualties
between three and eight thousand;[55]
according to Jasbir Singh Sarna 1208 soldiers and 122 Sikh defenders were
killed; besides the Army killed 3228 Sikh pilgrims too; the Government also
claimed that 287 soldiers and 121 Sikhs were wounded, whereas according to
Sarna, the number of the wounded soldiers was around 3000, whereas 12 Sikh
defenders and 1526 Sikh pilgrims and Bangladeshis, who were staying there to
board train the following day too had been wounded; similarly, according to
this source, the number of Sikhs arrested (mostly pilgrims) was 1592 from
Darbar Sahib[56] and 796 from other
Gurdwaras and 2324 from other places in the Punjab (a total of 4712).[57]
The number of the Sikhs killed was
so high due to 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 inside the temple complex. They were hauled out
of the rooms, brought to corridors in the circumference of the temple and, with
hands tied to their backs,[58] they were shot dead in cold blood. Among
the victims were many old men, women and children.”[59]
2. “The Army might have been operating
under ‘take-no-prisoners’ order.”[60]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 shamefully lied that “We went inside the premises of
Golden Temple Complex with humility in our hearts and prayers on our lips”[61];
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.
Women and
Children killed in cold blood
Disaster Caused
by Curfew
The walled city of Amritsar remained
under curfew for seven days, though it was relaxed for two hours on 7 June and
then two hours each day between 9 and 11 June.[63]
During this period several people as well as thousands of animals died for want
of medical help, food and water etc. To quote an eyewitness: ‘on 10 June, a UNI
reporter and I saw a dehydrated body of a petty shopkeeper who apparently had
died of starvation and thirst, being pulled out from a wayside stall by troops
about two kilometres from the Golden Temple. Later, the district police chief
admitted in confidence that six people and more than 1000 buffaloes had died of
starvation because of the strictly-enforced curfew. In Amritsar Green Avenue
district, where I stayed with the air force officer, babies had no milk to
drink and residents were mostly eating lentils and home made bread. A village
milkman who tried to bring milk to the area in violation of the curfew was shot
dead by soldiers.[64]
Honouring Brutal
Soldiers
During the attack on Darbar Sahib,
the Indian Army had behaved as brutal enemies; no warnings, no attempts to save
innocent pilgrims, indiscriminate killings, inhuman treatment with the dead, no
handing over the dead to their relatives, keeping no records of the dead,
burning of bodies without identification, cremating the dead bodies by pouring
kerosene oil and petrol on them, perpetrating atrocities 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 year), detaining babies and children (for months) were among the great
‘achievements’ of the Indian 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
their ‘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 atrocities 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 martyrdom 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; besides an Akali agitation was
also going on; that day a 1000 strong 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 militants 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 investigate their credentials to separate militants from
ordinary visitors); no such ultimatum 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 it
(Army) 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 parikarma (periphery) and threw hand grenades in every room killing
whosoever was there;[65]more
than one thousand Sikhs were killed in such actions.
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 asked Lt.
Colonel K. Bhaumik (who was the in charge 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, escorted the soldiers
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 to the military vehicles and took them to the Army 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; within 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 Surinder Singh) too was one of these.
The Army claimed that the grenade had been thrown by the militants but it is
not true because by that time the Army had occupied all that zone; had this
been an act by a militant 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 militants
then they would have targeted the soldiers, but not a single soldier was even
hurt as a result of this explosion.[66]
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 hand-grenades in every room of the Darbar Sahib
Complex but those who still survived were taken into custody and sent to jails;
these children were aged between two and
twelve; 39 of these 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 elder (twelve 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 of 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 or the Human Rights Conventions; when the Human Rights organisations
brought this inhuman treatment of babies, the Government officials, including
the Governor, 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 under court orders;
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 jails for several more years;[67]
when released, some of them had become physical and mental wrecks.[68]
Plundering of
the Sikh Achieves
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 Sahib, 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 new boxes in
which all the precious and rare books, manuscripts, relics, rare newspapers etc
were packed; besides 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.[69] After this the wooden
racks and newspapers of contemporary period were set on fire and, later, it
(Army) 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
achieves with it which remained at Merrut Cantonment 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; from the Central Sikh
Museum (situated on the first floor of Clock Tower) 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 Sahib 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
the word ‘ashes’ and signed ‘I have taken charge of the ashes of the Library’.[70]
Cremation of (in
fact 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 their relatives but
strangely our own Army killed our own people and did not return the bodies to
their relatives.”[71] To dispose of the dead
bodies of the Sikhs the Army tried to engage first some truck-cleaners and
other labour but when they refused, the sweepers were engaged to carry the dead
bodies to the cremation ground but as the bodies had been lying there for the
past two or more days, hence decomposed and stinking; at first the sweepers
refused even to touch them, but when the Army supplied them bottles of rum and
big sum of money they agreed. Some of them had made tidy fortunes in the
bargain.[72]
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 (scarves) of the dead Sikhs, and put these pieces in
garbage-carrying vessels, buckets and stretchers and loaded them into the
garbage trolleys; everywhere pieces of flesh and pools of blood, at places even
ankle-deep congealed blood, created a grotesque scene. After this these bodies
were taken to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital for post mortem; first doctors
expressed their in ability to perform autopsy but when threatened of dire
consequences they had to make formalities of post-mortem as an eye-wash; they
faced big problem in performing; post-mortem of decomposed bodies; and, after
this, these dead-bodies were again loaded in garbage trolleys 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.[73] As the dead-bodies had
been decomposing for three days the stench of the decomposed bodies and their
burning with kerosene oil remained in the air for several weeks.
To quote Chellany: “I visited the main city crematory on 9 and
11 June to check the fatality toll in the Golden Temple assault. Strangely
while there were troops everywhere in the city, there were none at the crematrory.
The ‘army probably thinks that the ghosts would take care of intruders’, said
the man on duty at crematrorium. He and the police official, who were given
charge of removing the dead from the temple complex, said bodies were being
brought in municipal garbage trucks round the clock since early 6 June; ‘we
have been really busy; to add 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 the
crematory official.”[74]
Near
the Golden Temple I saw an estimated 50 corpses in a rubbish lorry that had
sewage still 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 un-turbanned 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.”[75]
According to a soldier (who had
actually participated in attack on Darbar Sahib) some of the dead bodies 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 buildings, on the parikarma and in the
sarovar. The Sun was shining and stench from bodies was becoming unbearable.
Dead bodies 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 trolleys and carried away. A lot of them were thrown into the rivers.
The battle was a tragic one. I could not eat anything. Food made me sick. I
used to drink lots of rum and go to sleep.”[76]
This soldier’s confession of
drinking of a lot of rum is confirmed by the fact that all the soldiers 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, thirty thousand halves (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.[77]
The Hindus
Celebrate Killings of the Sikhs and destruction of Akal Takht
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
dead body of Baba Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala; after returning to their streets,
these Hindu groups began dancing as if they had achieved their greatest victory
of history; this was followed by distribution of sweets to the soldiers and the
Hindus of the town; some Hindu women 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 against the Sikhs as a nation’ and not the 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,[78] Atal Bihari Vajpayee[79],
the B.J.P. (its Executive even passed a resolution to this effect)[80],
Lok Dal leader Chowdhry Charan Singh,[81]
Janta Party leaders Madhu Dandvate,[82]
Ram Krishan Hegde,[83]
Ravinder Varma and Raj Narayan[84],
former Prime Minister Morarji Desai and former Deputy Prime Minister Y.B.
Chavan[85]
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;[86]
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,[87]George Fernades and Subramaniam
Swamy (a senior Janta leader),[88]
Andhra Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao[89]
strongly condemned the attack.
International
Press condemns Indira Gandhi
The 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, cherished by the
proud 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 Amritsar 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 have 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 only ten days old, and 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 (R.A.W.) made several
trips to London to seek expertise.[90]
Attack on
another more than 74 Gurdwaras
Though the Indian Government had
declared that it wanted to ‘free Darbar Sahib from 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, thirty 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 who 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 post-mortem 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 young men were arrested.[91]
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 visitors 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 militant 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 someone requested for first aid, he was shot dead. During those
days, kaar 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 trailers and trolleys and
carried them outside the town 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 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 similar 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 seize
any arms from any Gurdwara in the Punjab; meaning thereby that the Army had
massacred innocent people.
Angry Sikh folks
march towards Amritsar, hundreds killed
As there was complete curfew in the
whole of the Punjab since the night of the 3rd of June, telephone
lines were dead, the publication of the newspapers remained suspended (no paper
was printed for more than a week), the All India rado (A.I.R.) did not say any
word till for the first two days of the invasion; and on the third day of
battle, on the 6th of June, the first news people received was the
Government propaganda telling that the Army had attacked Darbar Sahib and had
‘accomplished’ its mission; it broadcast the news of some three hundred
casualties and, moreover, it did not mention the destruction of Akal Takht. The
broadcast was made in such a style that it should rather impress the people
that the Army had done some noble cause without resorting to any extreme
action.
But, even this could not silence the
Sikhs and hearing the news of attack on Darbar Sahib, every Sikh got enraged;
from every nook and corner, especially in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur,
Firozpur and Kapurthala, thousands of Sikhs marched towards Amritsar; there was
mass upsurge everywhere, in the villages and the towns alike. The Army
helicopters flying over in several kilometres around Amritsar spotted hundreds
and thousands of Sikhs gathering in many places; and soon they (Sikhs) began
marching towards Amritsar. The Army helicopters spotted three major points, at
Gohalwar village (about twenty kilometres on Amritsar-Tarn Taran Road on the
western side of the city), at Raja Sansi and Heir villages (about fifteen
kilometres from Amritsar on the eastern side of the city), in villages around
Batala and at many other places; at all these places Sikhs in thousands,
between ten and thirty thousand each, were spotted marching towards Amritsar;
and the crowds were swelling as more and more Sikhs from the villages on route
too continued joining them.
The Army had taken positions on all
the routes to the city of Amritsar but to stop the marching columns from
proceeding towards the city, the Army helicopters began bombing these crowds;
when people began running for safety, the Army machine guns burst upon them
killing several and wounding a very large number of the Sikhs; among the killed
was also Gurbachan Singh Tur, a former M.P. The number of casualties at the
above-mentioned three places was very high, according to villagers more than
five hundred protesters were killed only at Gohalwar village; Chellany, a
journalist, got partial information about these killings: “From my three
military sources, I gathered that 106 people had been killed between 4 and 10
June by army firing on crowds of Sikh villagers trying to march to the Golden
Temple.”[92]
The Rebellions
in the Army
The attack on Darbar Sahib hurt
every Sikh, the farmers, shopkeepers, workers, students, teachers, soldiers,
NRIs all; though the reactions were different with different persons but one
thing was common that every Sikh took it as assault on the whole nation. In
1965 and in 1971, the Sikh soldiers had fought for India whole-heartedly; in
1971, it was the Sikh army officers like Major General Subeg Singh and General
Jagjit Singh Arora who had led India to victory; in 1965 the Into-Pak War was
won only by the Sikh Generals and soldiers; in 1965, when the Hindu Generals of
the India Army had decided to withdraw the Indian Army positions to the eastern
side of river Beas; it were the Sikh Generals who swore to save Amritsar
because there was Darbar Sahib in this city, founded by Gurus. Now, in 1984, it
was the Indian Army which had destroyed Darbar Sahib, it was sure to hurt them
(Sikhs) and they were supposed to fight for the honour of their Darbar and
Guru’s city; hence the Sikh soldiers in different units of the Army rebelled
and left their barracks and marched towards Amritsar; and the Sikh soldiers
rebelled in ten cantonments;[93]
the soldiers’ rebellion was not an organised action, they had acted just
sentimentally without being aware of the consequences of desertions to their
lives, their career and their families.
The first to rebel were the soldiers
of the 9th Battalion at Ganganagar; here, on the 7th of
June 1984, 414 Sikh soldiers broke into the regimental armoury, took away
weapons and after having a round of the streets of Ganganagar, left for
Amritsar.[94] When this news reached
the Army headquarters at Delhi, they ordered the soldiers of the 94 RTV Dogra
Regiment to chase the Sikh soldiers; thousands of the Dogra soldiers
immediately began the chase and the following morning surrounded the rebel Sikh
forces near village Kot Sukhia in Faridkot district; at first the Sikh soldiers
decided to fight but having found that the number of the Indian soldiers was
very big they (Sikhs) chose to surrender at about 8 p.m. on the 8th
of June; the Indian Army asked all of them to stand with their hands up and
began firing killing 13 of them and wounding another 23; the rest were badly
tortured, arrested and later dismissed.[95]
The maximum desertions took place at
Ramgarh (Bihar) where 1461 soldiers of the Sikh Regimental Centre killed their
Commanding Officer S.C. Puri (a fanatic Hindu), took away a large quantity of
arms and ammunition, captured some private trucks from the city and began their
march towards Amritsar; they were chased by 21st Mechanised Infantry
Regiment which surrounded them near Shakeshgarh railway station (about 190
kilometres from Ramgarh); in spite of this siege some trucks still escaped and
continued their march; they too were chased by the 20th Infantry;
here a battle was fought in which 25 Sikh soldiers were killed; the rest were,
however, arrested and taken back to Ramgarh; hence none of them could reach
Amritsar.[96]
The other major desertions took
place at Jammu, Pune, Bombay, U.P. and Chandimandir etc;[97]
some of the deserters at Jammu too crossed to Pakistan whose fate is still
unknown. Though all these rebellions were suppressed but it shook the Indian
administration and jolted the international community.
Later,
on the 27th of November 1984, the Indian Government revealed that
2337 Sikh soldiers had rebelled; out of these 67 had been killed and all the
rest, barring 31 soldiers who were untraceable (they might have crossed to
Pakistan) were arrested; all the arrested were tried under Army Laws; for most
of them Summary Trails were held but 98 were tried under different Laws; under
summary trial 2239 rebel soldiers were court-martialled and dismissed; and most
of them were given varied sentences, some of them were given life imprisonments
too.
It is noteworthy that these
soldiers, who were employees of the Indian Government and were performing their
duties to earn for their families, rebelled when the Darbar Sahib was attacked;
on the other hand, the Nihangs, who claim themselves as ‘Guru Di Fauj’ (literally: army of the Guru) did nothing; their
soul did not prick them; sacrilege of Darbar Sahib and destruction of Akal
Takht did not hurt them; they continued enjoying bhang (cannabis) and reading Chandi
Di Vaar (and also perhaps Charitropakhayan)
and remained living as parasites; nor did the deredaars (cult leaders) react to attack on the Sikh nation and
they remained busy in eating luxury food and cohabiting with idiot female
devotees.
Sikh
Personalities Return Indian Honours and Awards
The uncalled and unjust attack on
Darbar Sahib pricked the soul of even intelligentsia and other elite, many of
whom were even known as sycophants and yes-men of the Government of India; many
of these returned Government honours and resigned their high paid offices. The
first to react was a person like Khushwant Singh, who had always been a
supporter of Indira Gandhi and was also a bitter critic of Bhindranwala; on the
8th of June, 1984 (the day Zail Singh had gone to Darbar Sahib to
have a look at the ‘achievements’ of the Indian Army), he (Khushwant Singh)
returned his Padam Bhushan Award as a protest against attack on Darbar Sahib;[98]
the next to react were Captain Amrinder Singh (Patiala) and Davinder Singh
Garcha (Ludhiana), the two M.P.s; on the 11th of June, 1984, they
resigned from the Lok Sabha as well as the Congress Party;[99]
(though Buta Singh too had agreed to resign but later he backed out and rather reported the same to Indira Gandhi);
the other to protest included Dr Ganda Singh Sikh historian who returned Padam
Bhushan Award to the President of India on the 14th of June; and
Sadhu Singh Hamdard and Dr Khushdeva Singh returned Padam Sri Awards on the 16th
of June 1984.[100]Similarly, on the 18th
of June 1984, Simranjeet Singh Mann (former S.S.P. Faridkot), then Group
Commandant C.I.S.F. (Home Ministry), wrote a letter (D.O. no. CISF/GHB/SSM/84)
to the President of India, narrated how the Sikhs had been and were being
persecuted by the India Army; Maan resigned his job and left for an unknown
place; on the 22nd of June Harbhajan Singh Deol resigned from the
membership of the Punjab Public Service Commission.[101]So
many Sikh elite expressed their protest against the invasion of Darbar Sahib,
however, Amrita Pritam (then she had changed her name to Amrita Imroz after deleting her husband Pritam
Singh’s name and adding name of her boy-friend Imroz as prefix of her name),
who claimed to be a poet of people, proved as a dead soul; savage killings at
Darbar Sahib did not prick her conscious and she remained unconcerned as if
nothing had happened.
Commenting on the return of the
Awards and Honours by these Sikhs, the Sunday Times (London) wrote: “Historical parallels may be dangerous but
the last week’s killings in the Golden Temple and the Amritsar Massacre of 1919
have some remarkable similarities. Only a few hundred yards separate the sites;
the official number of the dead is (so far)[102] roughly the same. In 1919, the poet Tagore handed back his
knighthood to the British. In 1984, many prominent and outraged Sikhs have
turned over Indian honours to India’s President (who happens to be a Sikh).”[103]
Protests by the
Sikhs around the World
To protest against attack on Darbar
Sahib, throughout the world the Sikhs held protest marches; big processions
were taken out at London, Washington, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, and Oslo
and in several other towns in various parts of the world. On the 10th
of June, the procession in London was joined by more than 25000 Sikhs; the
Washington, New York, Vancouver and Toronto processions too were in several
thousands; at Oslo, which had a Sikh population of just two thousands, the Sikh
procession was joined by almost everyone including women and children.[104]
Dr
Harjinder Singh Dilgeer
National Professor of Sikh
History
Birmingham, England.
(hsdilgeer@yahoo.com)
[1] A. R. Darshi, The Gallant Defender (Amritsar 2005), p.
97 (of 2007 edition).
[2] Surya monthly, September 1984.
[5] Darshi, A.R. The Gallant Defender (Amritsar 2005), p.
97 (of 2007 edition).
[8] ‘Operation
Blue Star’ has been reckoned as one of the 10 Political Disgraces of India: 1.
Internal Emergency (June 1975- January 77). 2. Operation Blue Star (June 1984).
3. Bofors Scandal (1987-96). 4. Demolition of Babri Mosque (December 1992). 5.
JMM Bribery Case (July 1997). 6. Fodder Scam (January 1996). 7. Hijacking of an
Indian Airliner to Kandhar (December 1999). 8. Arms Bribery Case involving
Bangaru Laxman BJP chief etc (March 2001). 9. Gujrat Riots (February-March
2002). 10. Surviving No Confidence Motion (July 2008); for details see article,
of the same name, by Gunjeet K. Sra in India
Today, dated 29.12.2008.
[9] Malhotra,
Inder, Indira Gandhi: A Personal and
Political Biography, (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1989) has also refereed
to this.
[10] Nayyar,
Kuldip and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, p. 56.
[11] A. R.
Darshi, op. cit, p. 100.
[12] The ‘Punjabi Group’ comprised
of Kuldip Nayyar, Air Marshal Arjan Singh, Lt General Jagjit Singh Arora, I.K.
Gujral, Pran Chopra, Gurcharan Singh etc.
[13] Samiuddin Adiba, The Punjab Crisis: Challenge and Response
(Delhi 1985),
pp. 644-45.
[15] These
meetings had been attended, from Akali side, by Badal, Tohra, Ravi Inder Singh,
Balwant Singh, Surjeet Barnala, Balwant Ramuwalia etc.
[16] Earlier
too, on the 16th and the 17th of November 1982, then on
the 17th and 24th of January 1983 too, meetings had been
held between the Akalis and the Government delegations.
[17] L.K.
Advani, in his book, published in 2008, has openly confessed that that his Party, along with
Chowdhry Charan Sinh’s Party, held two
major demonstrations at Delhi, on the 3rd and the 4th of
May 1984, to press attack on Darbar Sahib; again, he raised this issue in the
Parliament too (Advani, My Counry My Life,
p. 430).
When this book was published, all the Sikhs condemned
Advani, but Manjit Singh G.K. (president of the Delhi Akali Dal, Badal group)
went to the residence of Advani on the 13th of April 2008, and
presented him with a robe of
honour (for instigating Indira Gandhi to attack Darbar
Sahib).
[18] He was a fanatic Hindu; it was
he who had occupied the land of the Gurdwara Gian Godari built at Hardwar in the memory of
the visit of Guru Nanak Sahib. In 1984 he joined Advani and demanded attack on
Darbar Sahib; on the 3rd of May 1984, he led a demonstration against
the Akalis.
[19] According to Harminder
Kaur and Mark Tully, the order for this fire had been given by K.S. Brar
(Harminder Kaur, op. cit., p. 7, Tully,
Mark, op. cit., p. 145), also see the
‘official account’ (which is full of lies) by K.S. Brar, Operation Blue Star.
[20] Citizens
for Democracy, Oppression in Punjab (Delhi 1984), p. 57.
[21] Oppression in Punjab, p. 58, Tully,
Mark, op. cit., p. 145. Later, these marks were shown by
the international media including the Pakistani TV (In Khabarnama of the 3rd of June
1984.). Later these
signs were removed by the S.G.P.C. when Gurcharan Singh Tohra was President and
Manjit Singh Calcutta was the Secretary.
[22] Harminder
Kaur, op. cit., p. 8.
[24] Tully,
Mark, op. cit, p. 142. On the other
hand, a fanatic Hindu journalist Prem Bhatia (editor The Tribune Chandigarh) playing as cheap sycophant, wrote that when
he saw her in the first week of July 1984 ‘she looked five years younger’ (The Tribune, dated 8.7.1984); such was
the mentality of sycophants of Indira Gandhi and the fanatic Hindus; the same
Bhatia, in the issue dated 7.6.1984, described attack on Darbar Sahib as ‘a
neat operation’ in spite of the fact that nothing was yet known as to what had
happened there at Darbar Sahib or in 72 other Gurdwaras in the rest of the
Punjab.
[25] For Indira Gandhi’s full speech,
see Appendix IV on pages 684-687 of The
Punjab Crisis: Challenge and Response, a book edited by Adiba Samiuddin.
[26] Nayyar, op.
cit., P. 91
[27] Darshi, op. cit, pp. 109-110.
[28] It is alleged that he was a
senior member of the Nirankari cult, which had killed 13 Sikhs in 1978.
[29] According
to A.R. Darshi, General
Gauri Shankar was appointed as the Security Advisor to the Governor and R. S.
Dyal was ‘immediate subordinate’ to Lt. General Sunderji (The Gallant Fighter, p. 109).
[30] 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.
[31] Later, on the 7th of
June, the Army collected their dead bodies and their weapons from the tank.
[32] Chellaney,
Brahma, An Eye Account, an article in
Abida Samiuddin’s book, The Punjab
Crisis: Challenge and Response (Delhi,
1985), p. 181.
[33] The
Indian Army had already brought several tanks and at least 13 tanks were used
in this ‘Operation’.
[34] 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.
[35] 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; it was removed much later
and that even with much difficulty.
[36] The Indian Army
brought at least 13 tanks for attack on Darbar Sahib, three of these were taken
to the parikarma of Darbar Sahib and
the rest were on standby between Darbar Sahib and the Town Hall; to quote
Subhash Kirpekar: “I saw two tanks
positioned a little distance away from the kotwali, another outside Jallianwala
Bagh and three more outside Ghantaghar entrance to Golden Temple complex.”
[Amritsar Diary by Subhash Kirpekar,
in Abida Samiuddin’s The Punjab Crisis:
Challenge and Response, p, 171].
[37] Oppression in Punjab,
p. 61.
[38] Chellaney,
Brahma, op. cit., p. 181.
[39] Amritsar Diary by Subhash Kirpekar, in
Abida Samiuddin’s The Punjab Crisis:
Challenge and Response, p. 168.
[40] Sunday Times, dated
17.6.1984.
[41] 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 December 1715), Akal Takht Amritsar (1.12.1764), Saragarhi etc
where a few of them fought against hundreds and thousands of invaders.
[42] Tully, op, cit, 175.
[43] Chellaney,
Brahma, op. cit., p. 182.
[45] Darshi,
A.R., op. cit., p. 112.
[46] Later,
these signs were removed by the S.G.P.C. when Tohra was the President and
Manjit Singh Calcutta was the Secretary.
[47] This
volume of Guru Granth Sahib too had been hit by a bullet; this was a
handwritten volume from 1830.
[48] Surya, August 1984; Nayyar, op cit, p. 102.
[49] Daily Observer, dated 9.6.1984.
[50] It is not
true that the buildings had been destroyed in crossfire; the militants had not
fired a single shot on the buildings adjacent to Darbar Sahib or around it; the
militants aimed only at the soldiers trying to proceed towards Akal Takht;
hence the houses were destroyed only by the Army’s shelling.
[51] Daily Guardian, dated 26.6.1984.
[52] Daily Telegraph, dated 15.6.1984.
[53] 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).
[54] White Paper, p. 169.
[55] Nayyar, op. cit, p. 109.
[56] Brar,
K.S., Operation Blue Star (Delhi 1992).
[57] Sarna, Jasbir
Singh, History o f Sikh Students
Federation, (unpublished).
[58] This is
confirmed by Brahma Challeney, of the Associated Press, who was the only foreign
correspondent in Amritsar:
“the Sikhs killed during the attack were
shot at point-blank range, with their hands tied at the back with their turbans.”
The Times, London,
dated 14.6.1984.
[59] Kumar,
Ram Narayan and George Sieberer, The Sikh
Struggle (Delhi
1991), p. 265.
[60] Mary Anne
Weaver, in The Sunday Times, dated
10.6.1984.
[61] Darshi,
A.R., op. cit., p. 116.
[62] Chellany, op. cit., pp 184-85
[63] After 66 hours
of imposition (from 3.6.1984 at 9.p.m. to 6.6.84 at 3 p.m.) the curfew was
relaxed for two hours on 6 June from 3 to 5 p.m; on 7 June it was announced
that curfew will be relaxed from 3 to 5 p.m. but it was cancelled on suggestion
of Ramesh Inder Singh, the new D.C.; on 9 June the curfew was relaxed from 2
p.m. to 5 p.m.; on 10 June it was relaxed from 12 noon to 5 p.m. (however, in
the walled city it was from 3 to 5 p.m. only); on 11 June it was relaxed from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. and the following days from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There was no bus
service from 3 June to 10 June, on 11 June too there were a couple of busses
and that even for taking passengers to Patti and Tarn Taran; on 12 June three
busses carried passengers from Amritsar to Jalandhar. [Amritsar Diary by Subhash Kirpekar, in Abida Samiuddin’s The Punjab Crisis: Challenge and Response,
pp, 171 and 173].
[64] Chellany, op. Cit, p. 182
[65] Bhanwar, Harbir
Singh, in his book Diary de Panne has
given details of such acts; also see ‘Oppression
in Punjab’ by C.F.D.
[66] Though
most of the Sikhs present in the Darbar Sahib Complex had been killed by the
Army in cold blood, still some of the 350 of those who had been arrested from
the headquarters of the S.G.P.C. were taken to the Army cantonment (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 many of
them died); those who survived were, later, lodged in Jodhpur Jail (in
Rajasthan); they were not tried by any court and were not released for many
years; many of them had already become insane before they were released.
[67] Thukral,
Gobind, Atrocities on Sikh Children,
a report published in India Today,
dated 30.9.1984, Kumar, Ram Narayan, op.
cit., p. 291.
[68] Oppression in Punjab,
pp. 76-77.
[69] There were
about 20000 books, about 500 handwritten volumes of Guru Granth Sahib and
several relics. (The Tribune, dated
4.7.1984).
[70] Oppression in the Punjab,
pp. 66-67.
[71] Ibid, p. 31 (statement of Kirpal
Singh).
[72]Operation Bluestar: An Eyewitness Account by Subash
Kirepaker, in The Punjab Story,
edited by Kuldip Nayyar and Khushwant Singh, op. cit, p. 83.
[73] All this
was carried under the supervision of Ramesh Inder Singh, the newly appointed
D.C. of Amritsar.
[74] Chellany,
op. cit., p. 182.
[76] Monthly Probe India,
August 1984.
[77] Statement of Bhan Singh in Harbir
Singh Bhanwar’s Diary de Panne.
[78] Indian Express, dated
12.6.1984
[79] While
speaking on the Indian Government’s ‘White
Paper on Punjab Situation’, on the 25th of July 1984, 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 delicate responsibility and
the army should be felicitated for accomplishing their duty efficiently and
bravely…” (Proceedings of the Lok
Sabha, dated 25.7.1984).
[80] 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.
[81] He called
it ‘swift, yet restrained, operation in flushing out terrorists from Golden
Temple Complex’ (Hindustan Times,
dated 10.6.1984).
[82] Indian Express, dated
8.6.1984.
[86] Hindustan Times, dated 8.6.1984.
[87] Later, Chander Sheikhar sent a
fact finding team to the Punjab to know the
truth. However, in 1991, when Chander Sheikhar became the Prime Minister of
India, in collaboration with and under the blessing of Rajiv Gandhi, he exhibited
an altogether different attitude; rather he behaved as a fanatic Hindu and even
went to the extent of threatening another massacre of the Sikhs. Earlier he had
been demanding an apology for this invasion but when he captured power he
himself did not apologise as P.M. (even
other Prime Ministers e.g. I. K. Gujral, V.P. Sinh, H.D. Devegauda, Vajpayee,
and even puppet prime minister Manmohan 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’,
‘unfortunate’ and ‘it should not happen again’ the Congress Party used Manmohan
Singh to apologize for ‘Black November 1984’ pogrom of the Sikhs; and that even
after 25 years).
[88] Monthly Surya, July 1984.
[90] The Sunday Times, dated 10.6.1984, Nayyar,
Kuldip, op. cit., p. 56.
[91] Indian Express, dated
15.6.1984.
[92] Chellany,
Brahma, op. cit., p. 182.
[93] Tully, Mark, op. cit., pp. 194-95, Harminder
Kaur, op. cit., p. 49.
[95] Details
personally narrated, on the 10th of June 2011, to this author by Lal
Singh, one of the rebel soldiers.
[96] Indian Express, dated
13.6.1986.
[97] Punjab Times, London, dated 15 and
22.6.1984.
[98] Indian Express, dated
9.6.1984.
[99] Ibid, dated 12.6.1984.
[100] Ibid, dated 17.6.1984.
[101] Ibid, dated 23.6.1984.
[102] At that
time, the Indian Government had lied that only 493 Sikhs had been killed (in
fact the number was about five thousand).
[103] The Sunday Times, dated
15.6.1984.
[104] It is
remarkable to note that the Sikhs’ rage against the Indian government’s
invasion of Darbar Sahib was not just a temporary reaction; in June 2009, even
after 25 years of the attack (and again in June 2011), between 25 and 50
thousand Sikhs joined protest procession at London, to commemorate the
anniversary of the attack; like protest are observed in every part of the world
every year
.
