Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2In what could pose a threat to several retired Army officers, gangsters in Punjab are reportedly looking to kidnap or target those who participated in Operation Bluestar in June 1984.Intelligence agencies have informed the Army that some of its officers who were part of the operation—launched to flush out armed militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar—could still be serving. In the past few years, names of several gangsters have cropped up in Punjab Police records of having links with foreign-based organisations.General AS Vaidya, who was the Army Chief during Operation Bluestar, was gunned down near his house in Pune in 1986. Lt Gen KS Brar (retd), who was then (as a Maj Gen) leading the operation, survived a knife attack by youth in London in October 2012. Four people have been convicted for the same.Another senior officer who was part of the operation, Lt Gen Ranjit Dyal, the then Chief of Staff, Western Command—died of age-related causes in January 2012. The local gurdwara in Panchkula refused to conduct his final prayers and the Army then provided a Sikh priest at his home. Gen K Sundarji, former Army Chief who was then the Western Army Commander, died in 1999.Some of the Army officers who were young Lieutenants or Captains in 1984 are still serving while a majority of officers have retired. Some of them have been provided security by the local police whereever they live. Others just maintain a low profile and don’t discuss their role in Operation Bluestar even in private.Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, during whose tenure the operation was carried out, was killed by her guards in October 1984. In December 1999, her daughter-in-law and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited the Golden Temple and expressed ‘deep anguish’ and regretted the 1984 happenings. Each year in June, a ‘Ghallughara (meaning massacre) week’ is observed.