Punjab CM seeks return of historic materials removed from Golden Temple during Op Bluestar

Chandigarh [India], March 6 (ANI): Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking the immediate restoration of "historic materials" removed from the library of the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar in 1984.
Seeking the minister’s intervention in the matter, the Chief Minister said a delegation of some representatives of the Sikh Organisations Coordinate Committee from the United Kingdom met him recently to discuss some issues of concern to resident Indians and Sikh community diaspora of the UK, an official release said.
The subject of the material taken from the Golden Temple was among them, it said.
“The Punjab Government was already considering these issues raised by the delegation at appropriate levels, but the matter of restoration of the historic materials to Sri Darbar Sahib required the urgent intervention of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India,” the letter said.
The Chief Minister said that most of the historic original valuable materials of Sikhism were taken away by the security forces in June 1984, and no account of that had been given so far.
“The Sikh community had been raising this matter time and again. Even the Punjab Government had been requesting the Government of India to intervene to ensure that these historic materials, wherever available, should be restored to Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar,” he said.
The Chief Minister urged the Home Minister to intervene in the matter at the earliest, saying it would go a long way in meeting the long-pending demand of the community.
He also extended all assistance and cooperation that may be required by the Centre to resolve the matter.
Operation Blue Star in 1984 was a military operation ordered by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to remove armed Sikh separatists who had entrenched themselves in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was launched in response to a deterioration of law and order in Punjab.
(ANI)