Bluestar victims’ portraits to be installed at Golden Temple

Photos include those of militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, AIISF president Amrik Singh and Major Gen Shabeg Singh

› The directory published by Dal Khalsa has 229 names, while SGPC’s list has 741. A UKbased has recommended 803 names. After scrutinising all lists, Taksal has finalised 890 names.

SARCHAND SINGH, spokesman, Damdami Taksal

AMRITSAR : Portraits of approximately 890 people, including 50 women, who were killed during Operation Bluestar in 1984, will be put up in the “shaheedi gallery”, which is under construction in the basement of the memorial to the operation in the Golden Temple complex.

On the demand of the Sikh seminary, Damdami Taksal, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had decided to establish the gallery to display the portraits of those killed, including Sikh militant leaders Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, president of the All India Sikh Students FederaNotably, tion (AISSF) Amrik Singh, major general Shabeg Singh (retd), relics and history of the operation carried out by the Army in the central Sikh shrine against the militants.

Sarchand Singh, the spokesperson of Taksal, which was once headed by Bhindranwale, said that work on the gallery is underway. He said they had three lists of those killed, prepared by the Dal Khalsa, the SGPC and a United Kingdombased Sikh organisation.

“The directory published by the Dal Khalsa contains a list of 229, while the SGPC’s list contains 741. The UK- based organisation has prepared a list of 803 names. By scrutinising all the lists, the Taksal has prepared a list of 890 names under the supervision of its head Baba Harnam Singh (Dhumma),” he said.

the SGPC assigned the ‘kar sewa’ (voluntarily construction) of the gallery to the Taksal, as it had done in case of the memorial, which was built in form of a gurdwara under the supervision of Dhumma and inaugurated in 2013.

“Before putting portraits of these 890 persons, we will go for cross check by approaching the kin. A brief description will be displayed as caption of the portraits”, he said, adding, “We have also made an appeal to the Sikhs to provide the names which also need to be included in the list. So, the list may be prolonged”. The list also has names of members of Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh militant organisation, active during those days.