Pro-Khalistan slogans were raised inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar yesterday while observing the 33rd anniversary of Operation Bluestar. According to reports, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), President Simranjit Singh Mann and other Sikh hardliners raised the slogans.
#WATCH Amritsar: On anniversary of Operation Bluestar, All India Sikh Students Federation raises pro-Khalistan slogans inside Golden Temple premises.#Punjab pic.twitter.com/nEELgwTGti
— ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2018
The slogans reportedly started when Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurvachan Singh started his formal address. Slogans were raised against Giani Gurvachan Singh too and hardliners accused him of hurting Sikh sentiments in the issue of pardoning Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Sikh radical Group Dal Khalsa‘s chief Kanwar Pal Singh reportedly told media persons that their members boycotted Giani Gurvachan Singh’s address and staged a walkout. He also criticised the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee which appointed him despite the objections by the ‘Panth’. The supporters of SAD(Amritsar) have shown their anti-India stance earlier when they reportedly sold magazines hailing terrorist Burhan Wani as a hero. Their magazine also contained pro-Khalistan literature.
The Radical Group Dal Khalsa had also reportedly called for a bandh in Amritsar city yesterday. Plainclothes Policemen along with SPGC task force personnel were deployed in the city to tackle any law and order situation.
June 6th was the 33rd anniversary of the Operation Bluestar which was a military operation ordered by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Army had entered the Golden Temple to flush out the militant Sikh leader and Khalistan separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhinderwale form the Harminder Sahab complex inside the temple. This incident led to the assassination of Indira Gandhi in November that year by her own Sikh bodyguards.
Giani Gurvachan Singh, in his address, reportedly told that the Sikh community will always remember the unhealed wounds of the Operation Bluestar.
Expecting unrest in the state ahead of the anniversary, the state and central machinery had been on high alert. As many as 15 companies of paramilitary forces including the CRPF and ITBP were reportedly deployed in different parts of the state and 7 companies were deployed in the Amritsar city alone.
Radical groups have reportedly been increasing their activities in Punjab. There were reports of them infiltrating the Aam Aadmi Party too and there were also cases of prominent nationalist Hindu leaders getting murdered.
