Operation Blue Star: State-sponsored terrorism against Sikhs in India

Islamabad: ‘Operation Blue Star’, the code name of Indian army’s 1984 assault on Golden Temple, the Sikhs’ holiest shrine in Amritsar, was a brazen act of state-sponsored terrorism against the Sikh community.

While human rights violations were being perpetrated against the Sikhs across India even before the ‘Operation Blue Star’, the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar was an official beginning of such violations and systematic purge of Sikhs in India, said a report released by Kashmir Media Service, on Sunday.

The ‘Operation Blue Star’ was launched on June 2, 1984. The Indian army, backed by tanks and artillery guns, massacred thousands of Sikhs including pilgrims during its attack on the Golden Temple between 2 and 10 June 1984.

The Sikhs’ holiest shrine was also reduced to rubble during the assault.

The report maintained that even after 39 years, the victims of ‘Operation Blue Star’ and those killed in the ensuing bloody chain of anti-Sikh riots are still awaiting justice.

Sikh leaders and activists deem the ‘Operation Blue Star’ as the “Ghallughara” (holocaust) of the Sikhs and they are not ready to forget the killing of their great leader Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, a bold man who awakened Sikhs against Indian imperialism, and other victims.

Indian authorities had imposed draconian media restrictions to hide the gruesome crimes committed against Sikhs during the ‘Operation Blue Star’.

The report said that ‘Operation Blue Star’ was a deliberate move not only to kill Sikhs but also to desecrate their holiest religious place, which left deep scars on the psyche of Sikh community members.

Many Sikhs resigned from services and returned awards they had received from the Indian govt in protest against the attack on Golden Temple.

Following the assault on their holiest shrine, every Sikh got convinced that their future with India was not safe and as such the Sikhs accelerated their movement to get a separate homeland in the name of Khalistan.

This idea of a separate homeland is rejuvenated on every anniversary of the Golden Temple massacre in June.

Several Sikh leaders, including 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar, were killed by Indian agency RAW in Canada on June 18, 2023. The report pointed out that brave people of the Sikh community are determined not to rest until they achieve a separate Khalistan and maintained that their fight against India is actually a war against Hindutva hegemony and they will not let Modi’s hegemonic designs succeed, come what may.