By IANS,
Amritsar : Radical Sikh elements raised pro-Khalistan slogans calling for a separate Sikh state Friday at a homage to those killed in the Indian Army’s Operation Bluestar in the Golden Temple complex here in June 1984.
Radical Sikh leader Simranjit Singh Mann, a former senior police officer, led those who shouted slogans for Khalistan – a Sikh country – inside the temple complex.
Mann said the demand for a separate Sikh state has not been given up and the separatists would fight for it through the ballot instead of the bullet.
Homage was paid to people killed in the army’s Operation Bluestar launched here in June 1984 to flush out heavily armed terrorists from the complex, which houses ‘Harmandar Sahib’ – the holiest of the Sikh shrines.
District police officers said they were examining the pro-Khalistan and anti-national slogans raised by Mann, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, and others during the ceremony and would take action.
Earlier, the head of the Akali Takht – the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs – Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti paid homage to people killed in the military operation.
Scores of people, including army personnel, officers and common people were killed during the military operation to flush out from the temple complex the terrorists who had taken refuge there for many months.