GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 6

The Chief of Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh Suhag, has assured to intervene in the matter related to "missing" rare Sikh manuscripts, books and artifacts seized by the Indian Army from the Golden Temple complex during Operation Bluestar in June 1984.

This was confirmed by SGPC chief secretary Harcharan Singh who interacted with the Army Chief during the latter's visit to the Golden Temple with his family today.

The rare documents, which even included some centuries-old manuscripts signed by some Sikh gurus and original texts of Sikh scholars of medieval periods, were kept in the Sikh reference library in the Golden Temple till June 7, 1984.

On June 7, during the Operation Bluestar the Army allegedly took away all documents from the library and around 25,000 books, which were subsequently passed on to the Indian security agencies.

While the government claimed that most of documents in the library were burnt after it caught fire during exchange of fire, the Sikh leadership since then has been claiming that manuscripts and books were taken away by the Indian security forces.

Harcharan Singh said, "We discussed with the Army chief about the missing rare manuscripts and books. He in turn assured to examine it thoroughly and will communicate us back about his findings. We are also appealing to the state government to take up the matter with the Defence Minister."

The Army Chief is in Amritsar to present the Standard to 18 Cavalry, a frontline Armoured Regiment of the Indian Army, currently operating along the western borders on behalf of the President.