Operation Black Thunder is the name given to two operations that took place in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

in the late 1980s to flush out remaining pro-

Khalistan The Khalistan movement is a Sikh separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing a sovereign state, called Khālistān (' Land of the Khalsa'), in the Punjab region. The proposed state would consist of land that cur ...

Sikh militants from the Golden Temple using 'Black Cat' commandos of the

National Security Guards The National Security Guard (NSG), commonly known as Black Cats, is a counter-terrorism unit of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was founded on 16 October 1984, following Operation Blue Star, for combating terrorist activities and p ...

and commandos from

Border Security Force The Border Security Force (BSF) is India's border guarding organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) of India, and was raised in the wake of the 1965 war on 1 December 1 ...

. Like

Operation Blue Star Operation Blue Star was the codename of a military operation which was carried out by Indian security forces between 1 and 10 June 1984 in order to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the building ...

, these attacks were on the Sikh militants based in the Golden Temple in Amritsar,

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

Operation Black Thunder I

The first Operation Black Thunder took place on 30 April 1986. About 200 radical Sikh militants had been occupying the temple premises for the last 3 months. The operation was commanded by

Kanwar Pal Singh Gill Kanwar Pal Singh Gill (29 December 1934 – 26 May 2017) was an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. He served twice as DGP for the state of Punjab, India, where he is credited with having brought the Punjab insurgency under control. While man ...

, who was the DGP of Punjab. About 300

commandos stormed the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, along with 700

troops and captured about 200 Sikh militants.India Deliverance

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

, 1986-05-12 One person was killed and two were injured. The operation, which lasted eight hours, was approved by then Chief minister of Punjab

Surjit Singh Barnala Surjit Singh Barnala (21 October 1925 – 14 January 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Punjab state from 1985 to 1987. Following that he served as the governor of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh , l ...

of Shiromani Akali Dal. The operation had full support by moderate Sikh leaders and several leaders praised the police action for ''flushing out terrorists, separatists and anti-faith elements.''

Operation Black Thunder II

Operation Black Thunder II (sometimes just referred to as Operation Black Thunder) began on 9 May 1988 in

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha ...

and ended with the surrender of the militants on 18 May. The operation was commanded by

who was the DGP of Punjab Police.

Sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

s were used in this operation. Compared to

, little damage was inflicted on the Golden Temple. In what was reported as a successful operation, around 200 militants surrendered, 41 were killed. Gill stated that he did not want to repeat the mistakes made by the Indian army during Operation Blue Star. This operation was described as a severe setback to the Anandpur Resolution implementation movement. In contrast to prior operations, minimum force was used under full public scrutiny. It is remembered for the free access the news media was provided unlike during

. The day after the militants surrendered, nine reporters were allowed into the Temple complex. ''

Kirtan Kirtana ( sa, कीर्तन; ), also rendered as Kirtan, is a Sanskrit word that means "narrating, reciting, telling, describing" of an idea or story, specifically in Indian religions. It also refers to a genre of religious performance art ...

'' was resumed at the Golden Temple on 23 May 1988 after a two-week break during this operation. While Operation Blue Star was widely considered poorly executed and shambolic because of the egregious loss of civilian lives and the damage done to both the Golden Temple and Sikh relations with the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

(culminating in the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 and was al ...

by her bodyguards and

anti-Sikh riots The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs ...

), Operation Black Thunder was far more successful with the

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are leg ...

tactics paying dividends, and has been credited with breaking the back of the Sikh separatist movement. Soon after this operation, the Indian Government banned the use of religious shrines for political and military purposes and increased penalties for the possession and use of illegal weapons, as part of its strategy to fight extremism in the Punjab region. In 2002, Sarabjit Singh, then Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar at the time published a book "Operation Black Thunder: An Eyewitness Account of Terrorism in Punjab". The account was criticised by

who claimed that the operation was initially called "Operation Gill" before being renamed "Operation Black Thunder".Now, Gill slams author of Operation Black Thunder
Rediff.com, 2002-07-29

References

External links

AP News Report on the incidents of May 1988 in the Golden temple.
{{Authority control 1986 in India 1988 in India History of Sikhism Sikh terrorism in India Amritsar Insurgency in Punjab History of Punjab, India (1947–present) Counterterrorism in India

Operation Black Thunder I

Operation Black Thunder II

See also

References

External links