Demolished Akal Takht Sahib, center of Sikh political affairs, located in Harmandir Sahib complex.
The Akal Takht, the symbolic seat of supreme Sikh temporal authority, was reduced to rubble. Gurdwara Darbar Sahib was damaged with over 300 bullets. The Sikh Reference Library with precious hand written manuscripts of the Gurus was burned to the ground. The Temple treasury Toshakhana with priceless historical artifacts of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was also burned.
Tuesday May 25th
100,000 Indian Army troops are mobilized and deployed throughout Punjab surrounding all important Gurdwars including the Golden Temple complex.
Friday June 1st
Thousands of pilgrims start to gather at the Golden Temple complex to celebrate the martyrdom anniversary of Guru Arjan on June 3rd.
As Sant Jarnail Singh Bindranwale sits on the roof of the Langer hall, police snipers open fire on him. They miss and Sikh militants fired back. A seven hour skirmish during the night lasting until the morning leaves 11 dead and 25 injured. There were bullet holes in the Langer building, in the marble pavement (parkarma) surrounding the Golden Temple and in the Golden Temple itself.
Bhai Mengha Singh Jee had the kirpa (blessing) of being the 1st shaheed (martry) on top of the Baba Atal Sahib Gurdwara
Sunday June 3rd
All communications including phone lines to and from Punjab are cut. Road blocks prevent anyone from entering, or leaving, Punjab, and all journalists are expelled from Punjab. A total curfew is imposed and as many as 10,000 pilgrims are trapped inside the temple complex.
Milk vendors from the villages who supply milk to the city of Amritsar are shot dead for violating the curfew orders.
Monday June 4th
The army starts firing on the temple complex and there is a gun battle lasting 5 hours. Using machine guns and mortars the army fires at dissident positions atop the two 18th century towers called Ramgarhia Bunga’s, and the water tank behind Teja Singh Samundri Hall as well as surrounding buildings. At least 100 are killed on both sides.
Tuesday June 5th
At 7:00 p.m. Operation Blue Star, the invasion of The Golden Temple begins with tanks of the 16th Cavalry Regiment of the Indian Army moving to enclose the Golden Temple complex. Troops are briefed not to use their guns against the Golden Temple itself, or the Akal Takht. Artillery is used to blast off the tops of the Ramgarhia Bungas and the water tank. Scores of buildings in and around the temple complex are blazing. One artillery shell lands more than 5 km away in the crowded city.
In the narrow alley behind the Akal Takht paramilitary commandos try to get into the temple. Some make it to the roof but are turned back due to the heavy gunfire. Meanwhile tanks move into the square in front of the northern entrance to the Golden Temple known as the clock tower entrance.
At 10:30 pm commandos from the 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment try to run down the steps under the clock tower onto the marble parkarma around the sacred pool. They face heavy gunfire, suffering casualties and are forced to retreat. A second wave of commandos manage to neutralize the machine gun posts on either side of the steps and get down to the parkarma.
The Akal Takht is heavily fortified with sandbags and brick gun emplacements in its windows and arches. From here and the surrounding buildings the dissidents are able to fire at any commandos who make their way in front of the Gurdwara.
Two companies of the 7th Garhwal Rifles enter the temple complex from the opposite side on the southern gate entrance and after a gun battle are able to establish a position on the roof of the Temple library. They are reinforced by two companies of the 15th Kumaons. Repeated unsuccessful attempts are made to storm the Akal Takht.
Wednesday June 6th
After midnight tanks are used to break down the steps leading to the parkarma from the hostel side and an 8-wheeled Polish-built armored personnel carrier makes it’s way towards the Akal Takht. It is destroyed by a Chinese-made rocket propelled grenade launcher.
Six or more Vijayanta tanks enter the temple complex crushing the delicate marble inlays of the parkarma and plow their way towards the Akal Takht. Orders arrive and the tanks start firing their large 105mm cannons equipped with high explosive squash-head shells into the Akal Takht. These shells are designed for hard targets like armour and fortifications. When the shells his a target, their heads spread, or squash on the hard surface. Their fuses are arranged to allow a short delay between the impact and the shells igniting, so that a shock-wave passes through the target, and a heavy slab of armour or masonry is forced away from the inside of the target armour or fortification.
The effect on the Akal Takht, the most sacred of the five Takhts, is devastating. Over 80 shells are pumped into the sacred Gurdwara. The entire front of the Takht is destroyed and fires break out in many of the different rooms blackening the marble walls and wrecking the delicate decorations dating back to the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Marble inlays, plaster and mirror work, filigree partitions and priceless old wall paintings are all destroyed.
The gold dome of the Akal Takht is also badly damaged by artillery fire. At one stage a 3.7 inch Howitzer gun is mounted on the roof of a building behind the shrine and fired a number of times at the beautiful dome.
At the other end of the Temple complex on the easternmost side a battalion of the Kumaon Regiment were busy invading the hostel complex where many of the innocent pilgrims, as well as the temple administration staff, were in hiding. There was no water, because the water tower had been destroyed, and it was very hot.
Around 1:00 am the Army entered the hostel and administrative buildings, ordered everyone out, and made them sit in the courtyard of the Guru Ram Das Hostel. There were about 250 people who came out.
“I saw about 35, or 36, Sikhs lined up with their hands raised above their heads. And the major was about to order them to be shot. When I asked him for medical help, he got into a rage, tore my turban off my head, and ordered his men to shoot me. I turned back and fled, jumping over the bodies of the dead and injured, and saving my life crawling along the walls. I got to the room where Tohra and Sant Longowal were sitting and told them what I had seen. Sardar Karnail Singh Nag, who had followed me, also narrated what he had seen, as well as the killing of 35 to 36 young Sikhs by cannon fire. All of these young men were villagers. — Bhan Singh
“The people were taken out of their houses. Men’s hands were tied with their turbans. Women’s necks were sought to be asphyxiated with their plaits. Then they were shot in the chests. No quarter was shown to women, aged, or children; in the eyes of the troops every Sikh was a terrorist. Those who survived died of thirst. Their houses were ransacked, and then put on fire. The area surrounding Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) was full of debris. What happened is beyond description of sight, hearing, or words.” — Giani Chet Singh
As night falls, the Army troops are given the order to storm the remains of the Akal Takht and shoot on site anyone they find inside. The troops encounter little resistance, and find dead bodies, and the smell of death everywhere.
Thursday June 7th
In the early hours of the morning the troops discover the bodies of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his closest followers in the basement of the Akal Takht.
The day is spent in clean up operations flushing out any remaining snipers and collecting the dead bodies. Soldiers walk openly about the temple in their boots, drinking alcohol,l as well as smoking. Blood and bodies are strewn all over the broken marble of the parkarma, with putrefying corpses floating in the sacred pool of nectar and the smell of death everywhere.
Darshani Deori, the entrance gate of the Golden Temple which houses many priceless treasures, is destroyed and looted. Although fighting has died down, the central library complex is mysteriously burned down. Many priceless manuscripts, some in the Gurus own handwriting are lost forever.
Aftermath
The number of people who lost their lives will never be known. The Army refused to let the Red Cross enter the complex and cremated the dead before the bodies could be identified or claimed by their families. The Amritsar municipal sweepers refused to clear the dead bodies away but were eventually persuaded by offers of rum and being allowed to strip the bodies of all valuables. They piled the dead into garbage trucks and unceremoniously cremated them. Family members were not allowed by the army to claim the remains, or perform any traditional funeral rites. It is clear that thousands lost their lives in the Temple complex.
Tags: Golden Temple Attack, Operation Blue Star, Sikh History 1984