New Delhi — while the Indian Cabinet Committee on Punjab has yet to come out with a concrete formula for solution of the complex problem, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee has decided to collect evidence to plead before the special courts that the Indian army was the aggressor in its operations at the Golden Temple complex in June last.
The three member Indian Committee held another meeting in New Delhi on Monday to grapple with the Punjab problem but no concrete formula has emerged out of the discussion nor was there any indication when the committee would make a visit to the state to consult various sections of the opinion, Indian Press reports said today.
In the meantime the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee Amritsar is reported to have decided to keep Teja Singh Samundari Hall as it is after it was damaged during the ‘Operation Blue Star.””
According to SGPC sources this building will be presented as a ‘‘witness’? in the case of 379 Sikh devotees who were at present being prosecuted in Rajasthan jails in one of the biggest trials in camera. They were arrested from within the complex during the operation and are charged with waging a war against India.
Saying that during the operation there was no militant in this administrative building the SGPC will plead that the army was the aggressor. The army deliberately set the building ablaze destroying the religious organization’s records of the past 60 years.
According to Chandigarh based English daily “Tribune” the SGPC will also. Produce Photostat copies of postmortem exports of those who were killed during the operation, showing that their hands were tied behind their backs and they were shot dead from point blank range.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 12, 1985
