page_title: Operation Blue Star
section_title: 4 June
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Blue Star / Operation / 4 June
caption_attribution_description: English: Akal Takhat Sahib at Golden Temple Complex. The Supreme place from where all important decesions (by SGPC) related to Sikhism are issued.
context_page_description: Operation Blue Star was the codename of an Indian military action carried out between 1 and 8 June 1984 to remove militant Sikh leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab. The decision to launch the attack rested with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In July 1982, Harchand Singh Longowal, the President of the Sikh political party Akali Dal, had invited Bhindranwale to take up residence in the Golden Temple Complex to evade arrest. The government claimed Bhindranwale later made the sacred temple complex an armoury and headquarters.
  Indian intelligence agencies had claimed that three prominent heads of the Khalistan movement—Shabeg Singh, Balbier Singh, and Amrik Singh—had made at least six trips each to Pakistan between the years 1981 and 1983. The Intelligence Bureau reported that weapons training was being provided at Gurdwaras in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Amrik Singh responded to these allegations by stating that student training camps with “traditional weapons” had existed prior for four decades at these locations.
context_section_description: On 4 and 5 June announcements were broadcast over loudspeakers asking pilgrims inside to leave the temple. However, in 2017 the Amritsar District and Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh gave a ruling which stated that there was no evidence that the Indian army provided warnings for pilgrims to leave the temple complex before commencing their assault.  Judge Gurbir Singh wrote in his ruling, “ “There is no evidence that army made any announcements asking ordinary civilians to leave Golden Temple complex before launching the operation in 1984…There is no written record of any public announcement by the civil authorities requesting the people to come out of the complex. No log of vehicle used for making such announcements is there…The event underlines the human rights violations by troops during the operation.    The lack of evidence of any warning to vacate the temple complex was the basis of a compensatory award given to Sikhs who had been illegally detained by the Indian military.  The army began bombarding the historic Ramgarhia Bunga, the water tank, and other fortified positions with Ordnance QF 25-pounder artillery. After destroying the outer defences laid by Shabeg Singh, the army moved tanks and APCs onto the road separating the Guru Nanak Niwas building.
  The army helicopters spotted the massive movements, and General K. Sunderji sent tanks and APCs to meet them.
  The artillery and small arms firing stopped for a while, and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, former head of SGPC, was sent to negotiate with Bhindranwale for his surrender. He was, however, unsuccessful and the firing resumed.
caption: Akal Takhat, Amritsar
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