AMRITSAR, Punjab, India: May 22, Reuter; “Amritsar: A Unique City Humming with Eternal Bliss around the Golden Temple” reads the sign at the airport, but the description Tings ‘hollow after a 10day battle around the Sikh faith’s holiest shrine.
Since the surrender of the last besieged militant on May 18, Sikhdom’s main aim has been the Resumption of holy rituals at the shrine in the northern state of Punjab.
Top government priorities are to prevent the temple complex being taken over again by freedom fighters fighting for an independent Sikh homeland called Khalistan — land of the pure.
The Sikhs are expected soon to achieve the renewal of rituals which the paramilitary siege suspended for the longest period in the Golden Temple’s 40yearold history.
Killings in Punjab have escalated in revenge for the siege to bring the year’s death toll to more than 1,000.
Extra police have been deployed in worst hit areas, some villages have been armed and the authorities are considering special measures to protect often targeted Hindu migrant workers important to the economy.
Preventing the militant’s return to the Golden Temple from which they have openly directed their fight for Khalistan over the past year, is a more delicate task, Religious sensitivities in a country of many faiths are easily hurt.
Security sources say the militants, blasted from the temple by the army in 1984 and chased out again in 1986, soon returned to cow and eclipse the temple authorities.
In recent weeks, emboldened gunmen wielding the AK47 assault rifles that are their trademark openly strutted around the marble pavement surrounding the temple’s sacred pond.
The latest siege, during which 3 militants died and more than surrendered. Among those 4, captured or who committed suicide were several top commanders.
Senior police say they know they have won only a battle in a war”, it’s a step towards the ultimate solution of the problem”, said Chaman Lal, Commander of Punjab’s border areas.
“But it has been very significant step and the results are encouraging”.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has decided control of the temple would be handed back to the management committee only after that it would keep out the gunmen, a task in which police have previously failed.
A major problem is the warren of streets and narrow lanes between shops and houses that run right up to the temple walls and provide perfect entry and escape routes.
A plan revived in the past few weeks is to cut a swathe around the temple and turn it into parkland and car parks for pilgrims.
Officially known as “beautification of the Golden Temple area”, the plan calls for razing at least 1,300 properties, affecting up to 12,000 people, to create a 60meter zone around the temple.
The Amritsar improvement trust has been asked to probe the feasibility of creating a 200meter zone that would affect 40,000 people.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 27, 1988
