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BBC Solicits Memories on Bluestar
June 2, 2004 | Comments Off on BBC Solicits Memories on Bluestar
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BCC) is soliciting memories and pictures from those who were in Amritsar during Operation Bluestar—the Indian Army attack on the Golden Temple complex in June 1984.
On June 3, 1984, the martyrdom anniversary of the fifth Sikh Guru, the Indian army launched Operation Bluestar. The army invaded the Golden Temple complex, the center of Sikh religious and political life, and forty-one other major Sikh gurudwaras with tanks, 70,000 troops, and CS gas, and imposed a statewide curfew. The government forbade news coverage of the army attacks, expelled foreign journalists, and cut phone lines across Punjab. Eyewitnesses reported that over 10,000 pilgrims and 1300 workers had gathered inside the complex and could not leave before the attack for fear of arrest. The police detained Red Cross volunteers at Jallianwala Bagh, near the Golden Temple complex, preventing them from accessing the pilgrims and workers.
Eyewitnesses like Ranbir Kaur, a schoolteacher, described policemen tying the hands of Sikhs behind their backs with their turbans and shooting them at point-blank range. Although the official White Paper cited the deaths of only eighty-three Army personnel and 493 terrorists, eyewitnesses cited figures ranging from 4000 to 8000 people killed, mostly innocent pilgrims. (excerpted from A Judicial Blackout: Judicial Impunity for Disappearances in Punjab, India. Please see article for footnotes.)
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