CHICAGO: Sikh community based in the US city of Chicago organized a protest in front of the Indian consulate against the killing of tens of thousands of Sikhs during and after operation Blue Star by Indian army, thirty-nine years, at their most sacred place Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Operation Blue Star was a well thought-out plot by the Indian government to malign the Sikhs.
Despite the passage of 39 years, the justice has not been delivered to Sikhs in this incident. The participants of the protest said the Indian government massacred thousands of Sikhs. They demanded that the victims of Operation Blue Star be given justice.
Operation Blue Star was an Indian army operation between 1 and 10 June 1984 to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of the Golden Temple, the holiest site of Sikhism, in Amritsar, Punjab. The decision to launch the operation rested with the Prime Minister of India, then Indira Gandhi.
Indian intelligence agencies had reported that three prominent Sikh figures—Shabeg Singh, Balbir Singh and Amrik Singh, referred to in reports as “prominent heads of the Khalistan movement”—were behind the Sikh movement for separate homeland.
On 1 June 1984, Indira Gandhi ordered the army to launch Operation Blue Star, simultaneously attacking scores of Sikh temples across Punjab. Indian forces commenced Operation Blue Star when they fired into various buildings, which resulted in the deaths of civilians. A variety of army units and paramilitary forces surrounded the Golden Temple complex on 3 June 1984. The army’s assault on the temple complex ended on June 8. A mopping-up operation, Operation Woodrose, was then initiated throughout Punjab.
The military action in the temple complex was criticized by Sikhs worldwide, who interpreted it as an assault on the Sikh religion. Many Sikh soldiers in the army deserted their units, several Sikhs resigned from civil administrative office and returned awards received from the Indian government. Five months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in an act of revenge by her two Sikh bodyguards.
