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Chandigarh: Pro-Khalistan slogans filled the skies at the Golden Temple on Sunday where hundreds of devotees had assembled to observe 26th anniversary of the Operation Bluestar.
Operation Bluestar was a military operation ordered in June 3, 1984, by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, to remove Sikh separatists, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who were amassing weapons in Amritsar’s Golden Temple.
Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government’s justification for the timing and style of the attack was highly debated.
On Sunday, the Dal Khalsa activists and kin of those killed in Bluestar, staged a protest against the failure of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) to raise a memorial of the “martyrs”.
Without naming Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other hardcore militants who died during the operation, the Dal Khalsa said, “All those who were killed became martyrs for the Sikh community.”
Senior Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann led a group of radicals at the Akal Takht to raise pro-Khalistan slogans as soon as Akal Takht head priest Gurbachan Singh completed his address to the gathering.
“A separate Sikh state was the cherished goal of all those who laid down their lives during Bluestar and we all would strive to achieve that goal,” Mann said.
In his address, the head priest strongly criticised the army and the then prime minister Indira Gandhi for executing the Bluestar.
Dal Khalsa secretary general Kanwarpal Singh said a 72-hour fast was observed by party president Satnam Singh after a memorandum was given to the SGPC for construction of a memorial for the “Bluestar martyrs”.
He said the silence of Akali leadership about memorial to 1984 martyrs even after 26 years of the deadly attack was disgusting and disappointing.
He said, meeting of all panthic bodies would be convened shortly to decide the further course of action.
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥