AMRITSAR: Faithful mourners mocked the hard-line threats of Beant Singh’s Punjab govt. as they attended the Bhog of Arkhand Path of Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha at the Akal Takhat Sahib.

Despite a dawn to dusk curfew imposed for an area 50 miles around, security forces were unable to prevent the ceremony which the govt had declared would not take place.

On Oct.18 all entry points from the walled city to the temple complex were sealed. There was heavy deployment of police and CRPF. No one was allowed to proceed toward the temple complex.

Security forces which guarded the vicinity of the temple and the plainclothes men inside the complex kept out the public and many senior Akali leaders from the venue. Nevertheless, some senior Akali and AISSF leaders were present at the ceremony,

The police prevented top Akali leaders, including Parkash Singh Badal, Simranjit Singh Mann and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, from attending the bhog ceremony. The panthic Ekta committee member Daljit Singh Sandhu, who attempted to get into the complex, was severally beaten by the police. Gurcharan Singh Tohra, president of the SGPC, and Simranjit Singh Mann, along with Sucha Singh Chotepur and several other leaders were detained on Sher Shah Suri Marg.

Badal and Mann, who head their respective factions of the Akali Dal, and Tohra, president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee were taken into custody, along with their supporters at Jandiala, Daburji and Beas in the district on Sunday morning while they were proceeding to the Golden Temple complex.

All of them were released in the afternoon after the bhog had ended. Despite the strict vigil kept by security forces, which were present in strength both in and outside the temple complex, some Akali leaders, including Jagdev Singh Talwandi and Bhai Manjit Singh, managed to sneak in and address the small gathering of about 400   gathering of about 400 people.

Harminder Singh Khalsa, secretary, SGPC, said that it was a slap in the face of the Punjab government which had said it would not allow the bhog to be held. Making a blistering attack on the Punjab government, Khalsa said that Beant Singh was acting at the instance of an anti-Sikh coterie operating at the Center.

Manjit Singh president of Akali Dal (Manjit), said that the government was under a delusion of the government that the police had wiped out the militants. Similar things were said after Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Amrik Singh were killed. Similar claims were made after the Wood rose and Black Thunder Operations.

The Akali Dal (Talwandi) president, Jagdev Singh Talwandi, said that it was because of disunity that the Sikh community had to face all this bloodshed and humiliation.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 30, 1992