By IANS,
New Delhi : Following an assassination attempt in London on Lt.Gen. (retd) K.S.Brar for the 1984 Operation Bluestar, the Congress party’s Punjab unit Friday knocked at the door of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on the “situation” prevailing in the once militancy-hit state.
Sunil Jakhar, Congress legislature party (CLP) leader in Punjab assembly, met Shinde at the home ministry at North Block here earlier in the day and apprised him of the situation in the state.
In a memorandum, Jakhar talked of militant elements in the state rearing their heads again “following the present Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government returning to power earlier this year.”
Jakhar told IANS by phone that he also informed the union home minister that the SAD government in the state was withdrawing or downgrading security cover for all those who were facing a threat from militants in the state.
“The minister assured us that he will speak to the union home secretary on the issue,” he added.
Suspected Khalistani activitists attacked Lt. Gen.(retd) Kuldip Singh Brar in London earlier last weekend. Brar had led a military force that stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984 under Operation Bluestar that was carried out to flush out militants holed up in the holiest of the Sikh shrines.
Brar suffered knife wounds and was hospitalised. He returned to India a couple of days ago, amidst the review of his security cover by the union government and the army, which guards him.
Jakhar said his party would now launch a massive protest against the SAD government for going soft on the militant elements in the state. This, he claimed, were acting as an encouragement to the separatist forces to revive their movement.
The state Congress move comes at a time when the union home ministry has decided to send a team to Punjab to check out on the construction of a memorial for those militants who died in Operation Bluestar inside the Golden Temple complex.
The home ministry’s decision comes in the wake of senior officers in the intelligence and security apparatuses of the country expressing serious apprehensions about the impact and influence such a memorial for militants inside the Sikh shrine would have on the community’s psyche.