Kuldip Singh Brar
Encyclopedia
Kuldip Singh Brar is a retired Indian Army
officer, who was involved in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
, and commanded the highly controversial Operation Blue Star
to flush out pro-Khalistan
Sikh
militants from the Golden Temple
complex.
clan. His father, D S Brar, served in World War II
and retired as a Major General.
He was educated at the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun
.
, K S Brar commanded an infantry battalion, and was in the first batch of troops who entered Dhaka
(now the capital of Bangladesh
) on the morning of 16 December 1971. He won the Vir Chakra
for the battle fought at Jamalpur on the night of 10 December 1971. His battalion was pitted against the 31st Baluch
of the Pakistani Army. The Baluch Regiment launched continuous attacks against Brar's battalion. His soldiers had to move across the river Brahmaputra, at a location where no bridges existed. Therefore, they were able to carry only limited weapons on a man-pack basis. Brar moved from company to company in the midst of the battle, motivating his soldiers to continue the fight despite the lack of sufficient weapons.
In the years following the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Brar was involved in anti-insurgency operations in Nagaland
and Mizoram
states of India.
Sikh militants, along with the popular leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, occupied the Golden Temple
at Amritsar
, and resisted the police who sought to arrest them. As the law and order situation deteriorated, Indira Gandhi
, the then Prime Minister of India, decided to send in the army to flush the militants out of the temple complex. K S Brar, along with Lt. General Krishnaswamy Sundarji (then chief of western army command) and Lt. General Ranjit Singh Dyal
(then chief of staff in the command), planned this operation codenamed Operation Blue Star
.
Immediately before the Operation Blue Star, K S Brar was commanding 9 Division based in Meerut, as a major general. His three brigades were based in Meerut, Delhi and Jalandhar, and two of them were made up of Sikhs. He and his wife were all set to fly to Manila
on the night of 1 June 1984 for a month-long vacation. However, on 31 May, he got a call asking him to come to Chandimandir Cantonment
. He told his wife that he would be back by evening for the night flight to Manila. However, at Chandimandir Cantonment, he was told to take a flight to Amritsar. There was already a division at Amritsar, but it had been relocated to the Indo-Pak border in case Pakistan decided to move in to support the pro-Khalistan militants. When Brar told his seniors about his planned leave, Ranjit Singh Dyal and Krishnaswamy Sundarji conferred with each other, and asked him to cancel his vacation.
, who led the militants, saw him taking rounds, and knew that he was up to something. According to General Brar, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which is supposed to have the managerial control of the temple, had lost the control of situation.
Since the afternoon, the army kept asking the militants to surrender, using the public address system. The militants were asked to send the pilgrims out of the temple premises to the safety, before they started fighting the army. However, nothing happened till 7 PM. General Brar then asked the police, if they could send emissaries inside to help get the civilians out, but the police said that anyone sent inside would be killed by the militants. They believed that the militants were keeping the pilgrims inside to stop the army from entering the temple. Finally, around a hundred sick and old people were let out. These people informed the army that the others were not being allowed to come out.
When asked about why the army entered the temple premises just after Guru Arjan's martyrdom day (when the number of devotees is much higher), General Brar said that it was just a coincidence. The operation had to be completed in a short time, before dawn. Otherwise, exaggerated messages of army besieging the temple would have attracted mobs to the temple premises. The army could not have fired upon these civilians. More importantly, Pakistan would have come in the picture, declaring its support for Khalistan.
General Brar talked to his men (many of whom were Sikhs) personally on the morning on 5 June 1984, and told them what they planned to do and why they were doing it. He explained to them that it was not a mission against any religion, but against some militants who had defiled the sacred temple. He told his men that they may opt out of the operation, if they wished to. General Brar later said that none of his men, including Sikhs, walked away. In fact, in the unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Israr (whose ten guards later led the first unit into the temple premises), the Sikh Officer Second Lieutenant Jasbir Singh Raina, raised his hand, and said that he wished to be the first one to enter the Golden Temple to wipe out the militants who had defiled the holiest Sikh shrine.
On the night of 5 June 1984, General Brar's troops stormed the temple premises. General Brar had six infantry battalions and a detachment of commandos under his command. Four of the six senior commanders of his forces were Sikhs. General Brar repeatedly asked his soldiers not to fire in the direction of the Harmindar Sahib, even if the militants fired from that side. He later stated that there was no damage to Harmindar Sahib, except a couple of bullet holes that could have been the militants' fire or odd stray fire from the soldiers.
To prevent any damage to the Akal Takht
, General Brar's soldiers initially tried to lob stun grenades that momentarily stun people without causing any collateral damage. However, Akal Takht was completely sealed, and there was no way to lob the stun grenades inside. When his soldiers tried crawling towards the Akal Takht, several of them were killed by the militants' fire. General Brar later said in an interview that Bhindranwale and his immediate accomplices had shifted to the first floor of the Akal Takht, and this was against the tenets of Sikhism, since no one is allowed to stay above the Guru Granth Sahib.
According to General Brar, tanks with huge halogen lights were brought in "to illuminate the Akal Takht, so that the soldiers could see where they were going and to momentarily blind the militants in the glare of the lights".
General Brar's troops were finally successful in removing the militants from the Akal Takht, and both Shabeg Singh and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale were killed during the operation.
. He was also involved in the counter-insurgency operations in North-East India.
After his retirement, General Brar had to reside in the heavily guarded cantonment area of Mumbai
. There have been attempts on his life, but none have succeeded.
, the subsequent 1984 anti-Sikh riots
, and the Punjab insurgency
.
Although General Brar later described Operation Bluestar as "most traumatic, most painful", he insisted that it was necessary. He compared Operation Blue Star to Grand Mosque Seizure
of 1979.
When questioned about why Operation Blue Star was not as efficient as Operation Black Thunder
, General Brar said that the situation during the Operation Blue Star was much more difficult due to the involvement of popular figures like Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
and General Shabeg Singh
:
General Brar accepted that Operation Blue Star had hurt the sentiments of many Sikhs, including those who opposed the pro-Khalistan militants. However, he insisted that the act was not against any religion, but against "a section of misguided people", who held the country to ransom. He said, "I respect religion, and respect the fact that I am a Sikh."
After Operation Blue Star, General Brar's maternal uncle, who lived in London, refused to have anything to do with him. According to General Brar, his uncle wasn't very religious earlier—he smoked, visited pubs, and didn't maintain long hair (kesh
). But after Operation Blue Star, he suddenly changed and started growing his hair and beard. He started participating in pro-Khalistan functions, and even visited Pakistan. In 1997, while he was dying of cancer, General Brar paid him a visit in a hospital. General Brar stated in an interview that his dying uncle had "tears rolling down his cheeks", and now understood his actions during Operation Blue Star.
In the 1990s, General Brar authored a book on his version of Operation Blue Star, titled Operation Bluestar: The True Story. In an interview, he said that after reading his book, a Canadian Sikh who had earlier threatened him with death, realized that "the people who had let the Sikhs down were some Sikhs and the internal politics of the Akalis", and told him that he had "cleaned the temple". He even offered to pay for translating the book into Punjabi language
so that more people could read it. The book's publishers did the translation later, and the book ran into several reprints.
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
officer, who was involved in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
, and commanded the highly controversial Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star ) 3– 6 June 1984 was an Indian military operation, ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, to remove Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar...
to flush out pro-Khalistan
Khalistan
Khalistan refers to a global political secessionist movement to create a separate Sikh state, called Khālistān , carved out of parts mostly consisting of the Punjab region of India, depending on definition....
Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
militants from the Golden Temple
Harmandir Sahib
The Harmandir Sahib also Darbar Sahib , also referred to as the Golden Temple, is a prominent Sikh gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab . Construction of the gurdwara was begun by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, and completed by his successor, Guru Arjan Dev...
complex.
Early days
K S Brar was born(1934) into a Sikh family belonging to the Brar JatJat people
The Jat people are a community of traditionally non-elite tillers and herders in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory,...
clan. His father, D S Brar, served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and retired as a Major General.
He was educated at the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
.
1971 Indo-Pakistan war
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
, K S Brar commanded an infantry battalion, and was in the first batch of troops who entered Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
(now the capital of Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
) on the morning of 16 December 1971. He won the Vir Chakra
Vir Chakra
Vir Chakra is an Indian gallantry award presented for acts of bravery in the battlefield. Award of the decoration carried with it the right to use Vr.C. as a postnominal abbreviation Vir Chakra is an Indian gallantry award presented for acts of bravery in the battlefield. Award of the decoration...
for the battle fought at Jamalpur on the night of 10 December 1971. His battalion was pitted against the 31st Baluch
Baluch Regiment
Baluch Regiment may refer to:*the 10th Baluch Regiment of the Indian Army *the successor Baloch Regiment of the Pakistan Army...
of the Pakistani Army. The Baluch Regiment launched continuous attacks against Brar's battalion. His soldiers had to move across the river Brahmaputra, at a location where no bridges existed. Therefore, they were able to carry only limited weapons on a man-pack basis. Brar moved from company to company in the midst of the battle, motivating his soldiers to continue the fight despite the lack of sufficient weapons.
In the years following the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Brar was involved in anti-insurgency operations in Nagaland
Nagaland
Nagaland is a state in the far north-eastern part of India. It borders the state of Assam to the west, Arunachal Pradesh and part of Assam to the north, Burma to the east and Manipur to the south. The state capital is Kohima, and the largest city is Dimapur...
and Mizoram
Mizoram
Mizoram is one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India, sharing borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Burma. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987. Its capital is Aizawl. Mizoram is located in the...
states of India.
Operation Blue Star
In 1984, a group of pro-KhalistanKhalistan
Khalistan refers to a global political secessionist movement to create a separate Sikh state, called Khālistān , carved out of parts mostly consisting of the Punjab region of India, depending on definition....
Sikh militants, along with the popular leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, occupied the Golden Temple
Harmandir Sahib
The Harmandir Sahib also Darbar Sahib , also referred to as the Golden Temple, is a prominent Sikh gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab . Construction of the gurdwara was begun by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, and completed by his successor, Guru Arjan Dev...
at Amritsar
Amritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
, and resisted the police who sought to arrest them. As the law and order situation deteriorated, Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
, the then Prime Minister of India, decided to send in the army to flush the militants out of the temple complex. K S Brar, along with Lt. General Krishnaswamy Sundarji (then chief of western army command) and Lt. General Ranjit Singh Dyal
Ranjit Singh Dyal
Ranjit Singh Dyal is a former Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Lt-Gen Ranjit Singh Dyal , led the capture of the famous Haji Pir Pass in the 1965 war. He later became the GOC-in-C, Southern Command...
(then chief of staff in the command), planned this operation codenamed Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star ) 3– 6 June 1984 was an Indian military operation, ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, to remove Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar...
.
Immediately before the Operation Blue Star, K S Brar was commanding 9 Division based in Meerut, as a major general. His three brigades were based in Meerut, Delhi and Jalandhar, and two of them were made up of Sikhs. He and his wife were all set to fly to Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
on the night of 1 June 1984 for a month-long vacation. However, on 31 May, he got a call asking him to come to Chandimandir Cantonment
Chandimandir Cantonment
Chandimandir Cantonment is a Military Station of the Indian Army, generally referred to as Chandimandir Cantonment, located in Panchkula district, at the foot of the Sivalik Hills adjoining Panchkula city, in the state of Haryana, India. It is the headquarters of the Western Command of Indian Army...
. He told his wife that he would be back by evening for the night flight to Manila. However, at Chandimandir Cantonment, he was told to take a flight to Amritsar. There was already a division at Amritsar, but it had been relocated to the Indo-Pak border in case Pakistan decided to move in to support the pro-Khalistan militants. When Brar told his seniors about his planned leave, Ranjit Singh Dyal and Krishnaswamy Sundarji conferred with each other, and asked him to cancel his vacation.
Brar's version of the Operation Blue Star events
Before the operation started, General Brar walked around the Golden Temple in civilian clothes, and saw the militants and the barricades. His former superior, retired Major General Shabeg SinghShabeg Singh
Major General Shabeg Singh AVSM and PVSM , was an Indian Army officer noted for his service in training of Mukti Bahini volunteers during the Bangladesh Liberation War, and later for his role in training Sikh militants in their occupation of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar.- Early days :General...
, who led the militants, saw him taking rounds, and knew that he was up to something. According to General Brar, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which is supposed to have the managerial control of the temple, had lost the control of situation.
Since the afternoon, the army kept asking the militants to surrender, using the public address system. The militants were asked to send the pilgrims out of the temple premises to the safety, before they started fighting the army. However, nothing happened till 7 PM. General Brar then asked the police, if they could send emissaries inside to help get the civilians out, but the police said that anyone sent inside would be killed by the militants. They believed that the militants were keeping the pilgrims inside to stop the army from entering the temple. Finally, around a hundred sick and old people were let out. These people informed the army that the others were not being allowed to come out.
When asked about why the army entered the temple premises just after Guru Arjan's martyrdom day (when the number of devotees is much higher), General Brar said that it was just a coincidence. The operation had to be completed in a short time, before dawn. Otherwise, exaggerated messages of army besieging the temple would have attracted mobs to the temple premises. The army could not have fired upon these civilians. More importantly, Pakistan would have come in the picture, declaring its support for Khalistan.
General Brar talked to his men (many of whom were Sikhs) personally on the morning on 5 June 1984, and told them what they planned to do and why they were doing it. He explained to them that it was not a mission against any religion, but against some militants who had defiled the sacred temple. He told his men that they may opt out of the operation, if they wished to. General Brar later said that none of his men, including Sikhs, walked away. In fact, in the unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Israr (whose ten guards later led the first unit into the temple premises), the Sikh Officer Second Lieutenant Jasbir Singh Raina, raised his hand, and said that he wished to be the first one to enter the Golden Temple to wipe out the militants who had defiled the holiest Sikh shrine.
On the night of 5 June 1984, General Brar's troops stormed the temple premises. General Brar had six infantry battalions and a detachment of commandos under his command. Four of the six senior commanders of his forces were Sikhs. General Brar repeatedly asked his soldiers not to fire in the direction of the Harmindar Sahib, even if the militants fired from that side. He later stated that there was no damage to Harmindar Sahib, except a couple of bullet holes that could have been the militants' fire or odd stray fire from the soldiers.
To prevent any damage to the Akal Takht
Akal Takht
The Akal Takht of the Timeless One or Seat of God. It is one of the five seats of temporal authority of the Sikhs equivalent to any parliament of world sovereign country. Akal means The Timeless One - another term for God. Takht means 'seat' or 'throne' in Persian...
, General Brar's soldiers initially tried to lob stun grenades that momentarily stun people without causing any collateral damage. However, Akal Takht was completely sealed, and there was no way to lob the stun grenades inside. When his soldiers tried crawling towards the Akal Takht, several of them were killed by the militants' fire. General Brar later said in an interview that Bhindranwale and his immediate accomplices had shifted to the first floor of the Akal Takht, and this was against the tenets of Sikhism, since no one is allowed to stay above the Guru Granth Sahib.
According to General Brar, tanks with huge halogen lights were brought in "to illuminate the Akal Takht, so that the soldiers could see where they were going and to momentarily blind the militants in the glare of the lights".
General Brar's troops were finally successful in removing the militants from the Akal Takht, and both Shabeg Singh and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale were killed during the operation.
After Operation Blue Star
At the time of his retirement, General Brar was commanding the Eastern Theatre of India (the borders with China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar), and was also responsible for the defence of BhutanBhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
. He was also involved in the counter-insurgency operations in North-East India.
After his retirement, General Brar had to reside in the heavily guarded cantonment area of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. There have been attempts on his life, but none have succeeded.
Views on Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star was militarily successful, but it is criticized by many for being badly planned. It is considered to be a political disaster and an unprecedented act in modern Indian history, and was followed by events like the assassination of Indira GandhiIndira Gandhi assassination
Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, was assassinated on 31 October 1984, 9.20 am, at her 1, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi residence.She was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, to avenge the military attack on the Harmandir Sahib during Operation Blue...
, the subsequent 1984 anti-Sikh riots
1984 anti-Sikh riots
The 1984 Anti-Sikh pogroms / riots or the 1984 Sikh Massacre was a sikh genocide there was four days of violence in northern India, particularly Delhi, during which armed mobs killed Sikhs, looted and set fire to Sikh homes, businesses and schools, and attacked gurdwaras, in response to the...
, and the Punjab insurgency
Punjab insurgency
The insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab originated in the late 1970s. The roots of the insurgency were very complex.-Punjabi Suba Movement:In the 1950s and 1960s, linguistic issues in India caused civil disorder when the central government declared Hindi as the national language of India...
.
Although General Brar later described Operation Bluestar as "most traumatic, most painful", he insisted that it was necessary. He compared Operation Blue Star to Grand Mosque Seizure
Grand Mosque Seizure
The Grand Mosque Seizure on November 20, 1979, was an armed attack and takeover by Islamist dissidents of the Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest place in Islam...
of 1979.
When questioned about why Operation Blue Star was not as efficient as Operation Black Thunder
Operation Black Thunder
Operation Black Thunder is the name given to two operations that took place in India in the late 1980s to flush out remaining Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple using 'Black Cat' commandos of the National Security Guards Like Operation Blue Star, these attacks were on Khalistani militants who...
, General Brar said that the situation during the Operation Blue Star was much more difficult due to the involvement of popular figures like Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was the leader of the Damdami Taksal, a Sikh religious group based in India, who supported implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. In 1981, Bhindranwale was arrested for his suspected involvement in the murder of Jagat Narain, the proprietor of the Hind...
and General Shabeg Singh
Shabeg Singh
Major General Shabeg Singh AVSM and PVSM , was an Indian Army officer noted for his service in training of Mukti Bahini volunteers during the Bangladesh Liberation War, and later for his role in training Sikh militants in their occupation of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar.- Early days :General...
:
General Brar accepted that Operation Blue Star had hurt the sentiments of many Sikhs, including those who opposed the pro-Khalistan militants. However, he insisted that the act was not against any religion, but against "a section of misguided people", who held the country to ransom. He said, "I respect religion, and respect the fact that I am a Sikh."
After Operation Blue Star, General Brar's maternal uncle, who lived in London, refused to have anything to do with him. According to General Brar, his uncle wasn't very religious earlier—he smoked, visited pubs, and didn't maintain long hair (kesh
Kesh (Sikhism)
In Sikhism, Kesh is the practice of allowing one's hair to grow naturally as a symbol of respect for the perfection of God's creation. The practice is one of the Five Ks, the outward symbols ordered by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 as a means to profess the Sikh faith...
). But after Operation Blue Star, he suddenly changed and started growing his hair and beard. He started participating in pro-Khalistan functions, and even visited Pakistan. In 1997, while he was dying of cancer, General Brar paid him a visit in a hospital. General Brar stated in an interview that his dying uncle had "tears rolling down his cheeks", and now understood his actions during Operation Blue Star.
In the 1990s, General Brar authored a book on his version of Operation Blue Star, titled Operation Bluestar: The True Story. In an interview, he said that after reading his book, a Canadian Sikh who had earlier threatened him with death, realized that "the people who had let the Sikhs down were some Sikhs and the internal politics of the Akalis", and told him that he had "cleaned the temple". He even offered to pay for translating the book into Punjabi language
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
so that more people could read it. The book's publishers did the translation later, and the book ran into several reprints.