CHANDIGARH: Members of radical Sikh factions, on Monday, brandished swords and raised separatist slogans demanding Khalistan inside the Golden Temple in the City of Amritsar. Several hardline actvists belonging to the Dal Khalsa and the Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar took over the public address system at Monday’s annual congregation to commemorate the sacrifices of hundreds of common devotees and armed extremists who died fighting the Army twenty-one years ago in June 1984.

The Army, in what was code-named Operation Bluestar, had stormed the Sikh shrine to flush out a big group of armed Sikh separatists who had taken refuge inside the Golden Temple Complex under the leadership of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Addressing the congregation in the Golden Temple on what Sikhs have been ritually observing as Genocide or Ghallughara Day, SADA president Simranjit Singh Mann called for “the creation of a Sikh state or Khalistan as a buffer territory between India and Pakistan.” Mr Mann’s followers and other radical factions shouted slogans against the president of the SGPC.

Also voicing strong exception to the SGPC’s recently announced plan to raise a memorial for the martyrs of Operation Bluestar, the radicals instead declared a previously constructed gallery inside the temple complex as the “true memorial.”

They raised slogans against SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur and SAD president Parkash Singh Badal literally forcing them to beat a hasty and early retreat from the function.

Earlier, during a memorial service organised by the SGPC, Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti honoured the families of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Lt. Gen. Shabeg Singh and Bhai Amrik Singh who were killed during Operation Bluestar.—By arrangement with AsianAge/Delhi.