Op Black Thunder-1: Power of persistent persuasion

April 29, 1986, was a defining day in the volcanic decade of the '80s in Punjab.

- Ramesh Inder Singh

April 29, 1986, was a defining day in the volcanic decade of the '80s in Punjab. After the death of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a five-member Panthic Committee, an underground militants' executive body, was formed by the Sarbat Khalsa in 1986. On April 29 that year, this committee held a press conference in the Golden Temple precincts, and proclaimed the formation of a sovereign state of Khalistan. The committee notified the formation of its armed force – the Khalistan Commando Force – for Sikh struggle. It appealed to the United Nations and foreign countries to recognise the new state.

Bhindranwale had refrained from recognising Khalistan. For, he was conscious that it had no popular base among Sikhs. However, he did say that the foundation of Khalistan would be laid the day the state defiled the sanctity of the temple (by ordering security forces into it). Two years after Operation Bluestar in June 1984, the Panthic Committee's declaration was to carry Bhindranwale's pronouncement forward.

The administration was oblivious of the declaration, till the media flashed the news. The first response of the government was disbelief. I was deputy commissioner of Amritsar. Chief secretary PH Vaishnav quizzed me, "Have you understood what the chief minister wants?" I responded, "Yes sir, no entry into the temple." He added, "Double your chase outside, these guys cannot disappear into thin air."

The entry of troops into the temple complex would have been viewed by the Panth as then chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala's iteration, an affirmation of (former PM) Indira Gandhi's military Operation Bluestar. Hence, that option was considered taboo.