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Email:newsonline.ukdesk@bbc.co.uk to get the BBC to provide coverage of the Remembrance March & Freedom Rally.

I f we get a few hundred emails to them on Sunday 5 June this should do the trick.

Email:newsonline.ukdesk@bbc.co.uk to get the BBC to provide coverage of the Remembrance March & Freedom Rally.

I f we get a few hundred emails to them on Sunday 5 June this should do the trick.

Text this email address to friends travelling to London - those with access to emails on mobiles should be able to action this before they arrive in London

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Unless the Sikhs are going mental with Kirpans, they don't see it befitting of coverage! :rolleyes2:

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Kartar Kaur

76-year old Kartar Kaur's only surviving son, the sole breadwinner of her small household fell to the bullets of Indian army soldiers advancing into the Golden Temple.

"He just never came back," she says delving into memories that despite her old age, are as clear as that of events that occurred only the other day.

There were rumours that the temple complex was littered with hundreds of dead bodies. My poor son was among them

Her son Harjit Singh was an electrician employed by the Golden Temple management. It was his job to look after the generators in the temple complex.

He was a good son and god-fearing Sikh, who enjoyed his job at the temple because in a way he was serving his Gurus.

"Harjit left home for his shift on 1 June, but did not return like he normally did.

"This did not worry me because at the time there were curfews being imposed intermittently, and then I thought, what possibly could go wrong in the house of the Guru," the old widow recalled.

A week later there was still no sign of her son amid reports that there had been a massacre at the Golden Temple.

But there was little Kartar Kaur could do with the curfew still in place.

"I went to look for Harjit but they (the soldiers) would simply not let me through. No one was being allowed in. There were rumours that the temple complex was littered with hundreds of dead bodies. My poor son was among them. There was curfew.

"By the time the soldiers lifted their curfew, the place had been carefully cleared of most of the dead bodies. There was no sign of Harjit. Some other people who worked at the temple told me they had seen his body lying in a pool of blood.

"I looked everywhere but I found nothing ... not even the clothes he had worn the day he left home.

"I saw blood at many places. There were signs of devastating fires all around. And the Holy Akal Takht, the Guru's own abode, was in ruins.

"For me this was proof enough of my son's death. There were people weeping at the sight of the destruction of the shrine.

"My guts seethed with anger over what had happened. But then I accepted it all as the will of the Guru.

"After all the Guru had sent Harjit to my home ... the Guru chose to call him back ... I am grateful he breathed his last breathe in the House of God.

"What could I possibly have done in the face of God's own will?"

Strength

A full month after the events of 6 June 1984, Kartar Kaur finally summoned the strength to perform the last rites of her son, Harjit Singh.

She still holds a memorial service in his memory each year.

A march for peace before Operation Bluestar (Photo courtesy of The Tribune)

A march for peace before Operation Bluestar (Photo courtesy of The Tribune)

Left without anyone to support her, Kartar Kaur has survived alone for the past 20 years.

She has no other relatives.

The old widow today lives on handouts from other villagers or the local Sikh temple. In turn she spends all her time in cleaning the place and serving devotees who come there.

"There are times when I cannot help it and miss Harjit a lot. But what can I possibly do about the situation," she said.

Over the past 20 years, no government representative or social organisation has come forward to help her, but Kartar Kaur has no complaints.

"All I want are the Guru's blessings and a place at his feet after I die," she said.

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Gurjit Kaur

Gurjit Kaur ekes out a living by doing odd jobs at Amritsar's Golden Temple.

She lost her husband and 14-year-old daughter during Operation Bluestar.

Those who have seen the blood of loved ones spilt will never forget and I will carry my memories with me to my funeral pyre

Golden Temple attack: Your memories

Later, her oldest son was killed by police. Two other sons took to arms and became militants - they too were killed in encounters with security forces.

Her youngest boy was only 14 when he also disappeared after the police took him away.

"I have been left all alone in this world. Army soldiers killed my husband Gurmej Singh and our young daughter Jasvinder."

Almost her entire family - her farmer husband, four young sons and her daughter - over the years fell victim to the mindless violence that enveloped Punjab through the 1980's and early 1990's.

It all started with Operation Bluestar in June 1984.

"It was Guru Arjan Dev-ji's Martyrdom Day in the beginning of June that year.

"Gurmej Singh was a deeply religious man who visited the Golden Temple at least once every month.

He was also an ardent admirer of (militant leader) Sant (Saint) Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

"He left our home in Village Sodhiwala in Punjab's southwestern border district of Ferozepur along with our elder daughter, who was only a young child at the time.

"They were inside the Temple when the army launched its attack.

"Gurmej Singh and Jasvinder never returned home.

"All I know is they were among the thousands who were killed by the army that day. We couldn't even perform their last rites.

"To add to our grief, the police began harassing us because they recovered some pictures of Bhindranwale which my dead husband had once bought.

"My eldest son Kashmir Singh - 22 years and working as a mechanic at a nearby workshop - was picked up and killed. They threw his body in a drain outside the village.

"Intensely angry over the injustices we were forced to suffer, two of my younger sons left home to join militant organisations.

"I did not attempt to stop Jaspal Singh and Tarlok Singh from going away.

"I do not know if they were able to avenge the deaths of my husband, daughter and older son, but some years later - around 1991 - both the boys were shot dead in encounters with the police.

"I did not grieve - they had given their lives while serving the cause of the Panth (Sikh community) and the Gurus.

No respite

"But the police did not stop at this.

A police check around Amritsar (Photo courtesy The Tribune)

A police check around Amritsar (Photo courtesy The Tribune)

"One day - also in the year 1991 - a bunch of police wallahs came to my house and picked up my younger daughter, youngest son and me.

My daughter and I were locked up in the Jail at Nabha Town.

"But I still do not know what became of my youngest child. Baljinder Singh was only 14 years old.

"He simply disappeared from the custody of the police.

"Twenty years have gone by but I still cry each day. I cannot forget how my entire family was wiped out.

"Those who have seen the blood of loved ones spilt will never forget and I will carry my memories with me to my funeral pyre.

"Today I am all alone. My only surviving child lives with her husband outside Punjab. She does not visit me because the police harass her each time she came here in the past.

"My only remaining wish is to identify the men who killed Baljinder Singh. He was only a innocent little child.

"I want to know what kind of men could bring themselves to murdering a child. I want to know if they made my sweetest child suffer.

"My heart will not stop aching. Nothing else matter to me now."

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Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti

Sikhism's senior most cleric - the revered head priest of the Akal Takht - Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti has very painful memories of the first few days of June 1984.

For the soldiers everybody was an enemy, and all those who came in their way were mercilessly shot dead

Golden Temple attack: Your memories

"It was a frightful scene ... cannons and bombs were used inside the holy Golden Temple Complex, bullets fell like torrents of rain.

"Nobody could possibly have imagined that it would come to this.

"It is not just me but thousands of devoted Sikhs suffered deep emotional scars and these continue to bleed till this day.

"My heart cries when each year, we gather to honour the martyrdom of the hundreds of children, women and men who were brutally murdered by the Indian Army soldiers.

"I was inside the Temple complex right through the mindless massacre. Heavily armed soldiers were position all around and there was constant firing.

"Then late on 5 June evening, they entered with their tanks which targeted the Akal Takht (the centre of Sikh authority).

"Common devotees, employees of the Golden Temple management and the terrorists were treated in the same manner.

"For the soldiers everybody was an enemy and all those who came in their way were mercilessly shot dead.

Troops inside the Golden Temple complex

Troops inside the Golden Temple complex (Photo courtesy The Tribune)

"They broke open doors and killed devotees who were trying to save themselves by hiding in rooms along the periphery of the Temple complex.

"Towards morning there was a short lull in firing followed by loud cries of 'Bole So Nihaal Sat Sri Akal!' (the traditional Sikh battle cry) and then the final, fierce exchange of gunfire.

After that there was silence and army soldiers out everywhere.

"I guessed that [militant leader] Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had been killed.

"When the sun came up, from where I was, I could count just 35 survivors. Everyone else appeared to have perished.

"The events deeply affected me. But what I felt at the time was both indescribable and unbearable. It was the kind of feeling that only a devout Sikh can experience.

"They killed innocent people.

"It is exactly two decades since Operation Bluestar, but the hurt from the event is such that it cannot be forgotten. I believe that it must never be forgotten.

"It is most tragic that it was our own government and not a foreign invader that unleashed this tyranny upon the Sikh people.

"It is even more unfortunate that not a single political party or government has yet thought it prudent to apologise for something that was surely a grave error.

"There has still not been any word condemning Operation Bluestar in our nation's Parliament."

Apar Singh Bajwa

The year 1984 was a very difficult time for deputy superintendant (DSP) of Punjab Police Apar Singh Bajwa, now retired.

As part of an ill-trained, badly equipped and under-manned force, which had further been demoralised by long working hours, terrible living conditions and not the least of all - infiltration by Sikh separatist militants, it was his job to secure the perimeter of Amritsar's Golden Temple Complex.

I have no regrets. I did my duty as a policeman and I tried to act in as fair a manner as possible

Golden Temple attack: Your memories

The Golden Temple - Sikhism's holiest shrine - had been taken over by the militant Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his band of some 250 heavily-armed followers.

"Those were bad times," Bajwa recalled.

"The militants had found a safe sanctuary in the Golden Temple. They would sneak out, commit crimes and easily sneak back into the temple complex.

"Though we were responsible for preventing crime, the government has issued specific instructions barring the police from entering the Temple.

"The militants knew this and used it to their advantage.

"Things became further complicated when the [central government] home minister stated inside Parliament that none of the security forces would ever enter the Temple.

"Such a situation permitted the militants to fortify and arm themselves over several months prior to their final showdown with the army in June.

"Finally the army was called in and given the task of flushing out Bhindranwale and his men.

"We (the state police) were ordered back to our homes because there was a general impression that many cops were mixed up with the militants

"The intermittent curfew imposed earlier, was finally clamped down on the evening of 3 June, which was also the day of an important Sikh festival and there were thousands of ordinary devotees inside the complex

"We tried to get these people out but could only achieve partial success because the army began its offensive.

"I was then told to go home and I remained there until the morning of 6 June when I was summoned early in the morning.

"When I reached the police station near the temple, I saw the dead bodies of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, General Shabeg Singh, Thiara Singh and Amrik Singh lying there.

"I was asked to identify the bodies because I was familiar with all the dead men having often interacted with them as part of my duties as a police officer.

"The army officer in-charge then requested me to arrange the cremations. We performed these, according to Sikh rites, at the nearby Gurudwara Shaheedan."

Grim task

According to the DSP "a large majority of those who died inside the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar were common devotees who had come to the shrine on 3 June on the occasion of the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev's Martyrdom Day.

Sikh militant leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (centre)

Sikh militant leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (centre) (Photo: Swadesh Talwar, Indian Express)

"Apart from Bhindranwale's armed followers, I counted a little over 800 dead bodies inside the temple complex.

"I and my men were also tasked with clearing and cremating these bodies. Army and municipal officials helped transport them to the local cremation ground.

"While many of the innocents were killed in the crossfire between the army and the militants, it is true that the soldiers deliberately gunned down several devotees.

"You see they actually believed that anyone inside the temple was the 'enemy'."

The soldiers had no notion of how they should tackle an internal security situation like the one that had developed inside the Golden Temple.

Mr Bajwa said no attempt was ever made to identify the civilians killed.

"This would have been possible if the army had involved the state police. But then at that time the soldiers were in a hurry to conclude their operation and withdraw from the Golden Temple complex.

"It was this kind of haste because of which scores of ordinary families not only lost their loved ones but spent months in a futile search for their dead relatives," said the DSP.

'Avoidable tragedy'

As a police officer who in later years witnessed and was part of combating Sikh Militancy in Punjab, Mr Apar Singh Bajwa believes that Operation Bluestar could easily have been avoided had a little extra thought gone into the initial planning.

"This became clear in two subsequent operations in 1986 and 1988, when the state police and paramilitary forces successfully tackled heavily armed militants who took control of the Temple Complex.

"Operations Black Thunder One (1986) and Black Thunder Two (1988) were successfully completed without any damage to the Golden Temple," he recalled.

The police officer went about his job despite suffering considerable personal anguish (as a Sikh) over the damage to the Golden Temple and having subsequently to live under a constant threat from the militants.

"I have no regrets. I did my duty as a policeman and I tried to act in as fair a manner as possible."

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