June 7th 1984

The defiant khalsa

By the morning of June 7, only a few Sikh fighters were alive and they maintained the fight fiercely. Most of Sri Darbar Sahib was under the control of Indian forces, which having suffered huge losses and heavy casualties, unleashed their vengeance on the unarmed Sikh pilgrims they had trapped, by raping Sikh women, and indiscriminately killing  Sikh civilians including countless children. Hundreds of thousands of bottles of alcohol were sanctioned by the Indian state for consumption of its forces within Sri Darbar Sahib.

In continuation of the onslaught against the fabric of the Sikh Qaum, the Indian forces targeted a source of Sikh fighting spirit by destroying the Sikh Reference Library which contained rare handwritten Saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, including Hukumnameh and other texts from the Guru period.

“The soldiers freely drank and smoked inside the complex. They certainly had plenty to drink, a notification of the Government of Punjab’s Department of Excise and Taxation allowed for the provision of 700,000-quart bottles of rum, 30,000-quart bottles of whiskey, 60,000-quart bottles of brandy and 160,000 bottles of beer all for ‘consumption by the Armed Forces Personnel deployed in Operation Blue Star” – Amritsar: Mrs. Gandhi’s Last Battle, Tully & Jacob.