Singh Sahib Gi­ani Sahib Singh, the head Granthi of Sri Dar­bar Sahib, had his res­i­dence in Sha­heed Bunga Street on the back side of Sri Dar­bar Sahib. In­dian forces had ini­ti­ated their at­tack on Sri Dar­bar Sahib at 4:45 am on the morn­ing of June 4. Un­der the bat­tle con­di­tions and in­tense ex­change of fire, Singh Sahib ful­filled his du­ties on June 5 un­til noon. How­ever, on June 6 he was not al­lowed to reach Har­mandir Sahib for his du­ties. Oth­ers, in­clud­ing Gi­ani Mo­han Singh Ji and Gi­ani Pu­ran Singh Ji, were forced to re­main in­side, even af­ter the com­ple­tion of their reg­u­lar du­ties on June 5 evening. They sim­ply could not leave the premises.  Fol­low­ing is an ex­cerpt from an in­ter­view by the then BBC jour­nal­ist and au­thor Har­bir Singh Bhan­wer with Singh Sahib Gi­ani Sahib Singh.

Jour­nal­ist HAR­BIR SINGH: When were you able to first re­turn to Sri Dar­bar Sahib af­ter Op­er­a­tion Blues­tar and what were the con­di­tions as you saw them?

SINGH SAHIB: Gi­ani Mo­han Singh Ji and Gi­ani Pu­ran Singh Ji, ac­com­pa­nied by some sol­diers, reached my house around 5 am of June 7. 

They in­formed me that Gen­eral Sahib had sum­moned for me and in­structed me to get ready in 15 mins. and ac­com­pany them. I left es­corted by the sol­diers. The Atta Mandi, Ka­tra Dal Singh and back an­te­room (De­odhi) of Sri Dar­bar Sahib was full of sol­diers. There were thou­sands of sol­diers every­where. We were stopped at every place and ques­tioned, “Who is he? Kill him.” Sol­diers es­cort­ing me re­sponded, “he is the head priest.” Upon reach­ing the Dar­bar Sahib com­plex, in­side I saw Sikhs seated all over the parkarma with their hands tied be­hind their backs with their own tur­bans. 

Among them were the Gur­d­wara em­ploy­ees. Gi­ani Su­jan Singh, Sant Bhin­drawale’s helper and SGPC mem­ber, was among the de­tained Sikhs. At the foot­steps of the parkarma, we were met by an ar­ro­gant Sikh Colonel. When the ac­com­pa­ny­ing sol­diers in­formed him about me, he promptly or­dered “if he is the head Granthi, bring him in­side.” The Parkarma had 6-7 tanks.

“HAR­BIR SINGH: Your in­ter­view on Do­or­dar­shan, was that given of your free will or un­der the pres­sure of mil­i­tary guns?

SINGH SAHIB: Pun­jab sit­u­a­tion was dan­ger­ous at that mo­ment. Gi­ani Kir­pal Singh had al­ready read his views on TV. What­ever I said was done in con­sul­ta­tion with our or­ga­niz­ers, Sar­dar Bhan Singh and Sar­dar Abi­nashi Singh, etc. This was done to nor­mal­ize the sit­u­a­tion. ”

Dead bod­ies were every­where. I in­quired from the Sikh Colonel if I could meet with the de­tained Sikhs. He replied that his or­ders are against it. How­ever, when I in­formed him that our own staff was among the de­tained, he sug­gested that I could watch but not speak with them. He fur­ther em­pha­sized that if I talked with any­one, I will be killed.

Baba Deep Singh Ji Sha­heed’s Bunga was full of de­tained Sikhs. As they saw me, they started cry­ing. Some re­quested if I could seek per­mis­sion for them to drink wa­ter from the sarowar. Whoso­ever I spoke with was mer­ci­lessly beaten by sol­diers with gun-butts and sub­jected to deroga­tory ver­bal abuse say­ing, “Sala asks for wa­ter!” I in­formed the Sikh Colonel that Gur­Sikhs reg­u­larly or­ga­nize “Shabeels” to gra­tu­itously dis­trib­ute wa­ter, and re­quested per­mis­sion to dis­trib­ute wa­ter among the de­tained Sikhs. 

In­dian forces could be seen in all build­ings of Sri Dar­bar Sahib. Ref­er­ence li­brary was burn­ing at this mo­ment. The whole parkarma was in bad shape with blood, red am­mu­ni­tion shells, and bro­ken glass. There was no place to put your foot down. The sol­diers ac­com­pa­ny­ing me sug­gested that I wear my shoes. How­ever, I re­fused and pro­ceeded bare-foot. At the Shabeel cor­ner some­one fired at me. For­tu­nately, I es­caped.

Now the sol­diers es­cort­ing me were yelling “He is the head priest” but no one was lis­ten­ing to any­one. I was shot at once again near the Lachi Baer Gur­d­wara. This bul­let missed and hit the floor near me. Near Lachi Baer Gur­d­wara, Sri Akal Takhat’s court­yard was filled with dead bod­ies.

Sol­diers were every­where. The Dar­shani (De­odhi) an­te­room, Janda Bunga, new an­te­room, every­where sol­diers were po­si­tioned with en­trenched ma­chine guns and LMGs. The his­tor­i­cal Lachi Baer tree was badly bru­tal­ized. The nearby room for Palki Sahib was badly lit­tered with scat­tered ru­malas. With a deeply sad­dened heart and great dif­fi­culty, I reached thus far. The Dar­shani (De­odhi) an­te­room was full of drunken sol­diers who were smok­ing cig­a­rettes. When these sol­diers saw me, they started hurl­ing deroga­tory ver­bal abuses at me, “Who is this Sala?” Al­most all sol­diers were abu­sive. They could­n’t ut­ter any words with­out us­ing deroga­tory terms.

“Sol­diers were every­where. The Dar­shani (De­odhi) an­te­room, Janda Bunga, new an­te­room, every­where sol­diers were po­si­tioned with en­trenched ma­chine guns and LMGs. The his­tor­i­cal Lachi Baer tree was badly bru­tal­ized. The nearby room for Palki Sahib was badly lit­tered with scat­tered ru­malas. With a deeply sad­dened heart and great dif­fi­culty, I reached thus far ”

From the door­sill till the bridge, the Dar­shani an­te­room was filled with rub­bish. The bridge was heav­ily guarded with armed sol­diers. Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib was also heav­ily guarded. The sit­u­a­tion in­side Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib was­n’t any bet­ter. The car­pets used for June 5 could not be re­placed on June 6.

Am­mu­ni­tion shells and bro­ken glass lit­tered the in­sides as well.

There were 6-7 Sikh sol­diers in­clud­ing a granthi and two Colonels when I reached in­side. They in­formed me that Gen­eral Sahib had left af­ter a long wait for me. They in­structed me to con­duct Sri Guru Granth Sahib’s Prakash and ini­ti­ate kir­tan and other ser­vices. By now I had been in­formed by other Singh Sahibans that the sa­cred copy of Sri Guru Granth Sahib had been hit by a bul­let.

HAR­BIR SINGH: The sa­cred copy of Sri Guru Granth Sahib that was hit by a bul­let, was that in use in the main hall or on the first story?

SINGH SAHIB: This copy was in Parkash in Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib. At Har-ki-Pauri, a Sikh was read­ing from Guru Granth Sahib, when a bul­let hit a win­dow and broke its glass. A piece of that glass cut the Pathi Sikh’s hand. It is this Sikh’s blood that you find on the ru­malas.

 Read: 1984 –Who, What, How and Why 

The Cen­tral Re­serve Po­lice Force (CRPF) had pre­vi­ously rid­dled Sri Dar­bar Sahib with bul­lets from all cor­ners on June 1. The next day, June 2, was­n’t any bet­ter ei­ther. In con­sul­ta­tion with Tohra Sahib, on the morn­ing of June 4, all Ak­hand Paths were con­cluded and all sa­cred copies of Sri Guru Granth Sahib were moved in safe­keep­ing af­ter their ‘sukhasan‘. How­ever, the Ak­hand Path at Har Ki Pauri was al­lowed to con­tinue and com­pleted on the morn­ing of June 6. Be­cause of the cur­few im­posed by the In­dian forces, our em­ploy­ees could not reach Sri Dar­bar Sahib to as­sume their du­ties. As a re­sult most Pathis had to re­cite Path for 8-10 hours con­tin­u­ously. 

HAR­BIR SINGH: When was Sri Guru Granth Sahib’s Parkash con­ducted?

SINGH SAHIB: First of all we cleaned the in­sides of Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib. The Sikh sol­diers helped me with this task. The the Sukhasan of the sa­cred copy of Sri Guru Granth Sahib that was hit by a bul­let was con­ducted. Then the Sri Guru Granth Sahib copy was brought from Lachi Baer Gur­d­wara and the Parkash was ac­com­plished around 10am.

There was no Kadha Par­shad served. A Sikh Sube­dar brought some sweet-meat pre­pared from sugar (Patasae) from some­where, that was served in­stead.

HAR­BIR SINGH: Then which Shabad’s kir­tan was ini­ti­ated?

SINGH SAHIB: When the two Colonels in­side Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib, Shamin­dar Singh and Sharma, asked me to or­ga­nize shabad kir­tan, I ex­pressed the need for a sig­nif­i­cant staff to con­duct such pro­gram.

“I told Gi­ani Zail Singh that they have done things worse than the mughals. How could all this hap­pen un­der a Sikh Pres­i­dent? Gi­ani Zail Singh told me that Shri­mati Gandhi did not tell him any­thing.”

They asked me in re­turn where to get the re­quired staff. Upon which I in­formed them of the Gur­d­wara em­ploy­ees among the de­tained Sikhs out­side and asked for their re­lease. They agreed to my sug­ges­tion and es­corted me to where the Sikhs were de­tained. As I pointed out to our staff mem­bers, their hands were sniffed.

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HAR­BIR SINGH: (As­ton­ished) Why did they sniff their hands?

SINGH SAHIB: I did­n’t know ei­ther. Ap­par­ently, the hands used in fir­ing guns can be iden­ti­fied through smell. It can also be iden­ti­fied from the fin­gers. Based on my re­quest 15 Sikhs were re­leased. The rest were con­sid­ered pris­on­ers and sent to camps. Among the re­leased were Ha­juri Ragi Mo­hin­der Singh’s tabla com­pan­ion Bhai Gur­cha­ran Singh (who could per­form kir­tan as well), Surma Singh Karam­jeet Singh who could play tabla, and Sant Bhin­drawale’s Ragi Bhai Harb­ha­jan Singh. For sev­eral days these in­di­vid­u­als con­ducted the kir­tan. The in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing kir­tan be­ing per­formed by mil­i­tary per­son­nel in your di­ary is in­ac­cu­rate.

HAR­BIR SINGH: Who did the Ar­das?

SINGH SAHIB: This too was done by Sri Dar­bar Sahib’s Ar­das­sia Bhai Harpal Singh. All these in­di­vid­u­als stayed in my house for sev­eral days. Upon seek­ing their re­lease I took them to my house. Sev­eral of them had blood stains on their clothes. They bathed and washed their clothes. Sev­eral of them had to use my clothes.

HAR­BIR SINGH: Shabad kir­tan started be­ing re­layed on ra­dio from June 8, who or­ga­nized this pro­gram?

SINGH SAHIB: The ra­dio and elec­tric­ity work­ers ar­rived on June 7. They in­stalled the nec­es­sary wires, etc. Mil­i­tary per­son­nel brought a loud­speaker from some Hindu in­di­vid­ual. We re­turned it af­ter­wards.

HAR­BIR SINGH: When were the dead bod­ies re­moved?

SINGH SAHIB: Gi­ani Zail Singh was to ar­rive on June 8. So the In­dian force re­moved all dead bod­ies from the parkarma path from Ghanta Ghar an­te­room to­wards Baba Bud­ha’s Baeri tree. But the bod­ies were left else­where. Even the sarowar had 10-12 float­ing bod­ies. I wit­nessed on June 7 that a Sikh ran out from a room along the parkarma and jumped into the sarowar. The sol­diers im­me­di­ately opened fire and killed him in the sarowar it­self.

 Read: Re­flec­tions on June 1984; me­dia and global in­dif­fer­ence backs In­dia

HAR­BIR SINGH: Did you learn any­thing about Sant Bhin­drawale?

SINGH SAHIB: We learned on June 7 that his dead body was dis­played in the Ghanta Ghar’s an­te­room. How­ever, we weren’t al­lowed to go there.

HAR­BIR SINGH: Tell us about Gi­ani Zail Singh’s visit?

SINGH SAHIB: On the day of Gi­ani Zail Singh’s visit, some sol­diers took me to­wards the Lan­gar build­ing. All sto­ries of this build­ing were filled with sol­diers. The Do­gra reg­i­ment was sta­tioned here. Colonel Ba­jwa and one other Colonel in­formed me that some Sikhs were holed in Ramgharia Bunga. They had taken one Cap­tain doc­tor hostage.

Fur­ther­more, these Sikhs had con­veyed that if 5 Singh Sahibans asked them to drop their weapons they will com­ply. Gi­ani Pu­ran Singh was with me. As we ap­proached the bunga, we saw two Gur­sikhs seated with their backs tied to each other in front of the Bunga. We asked the Colonel that if the Sikhs drop their weapons, they would not shoot them? They promised that if these Sikhs haven’t killed any of their men, they will be spared. Within the Ramgharia Bunga, ap­proach­ing from Baba Kharak Singh’s Dera side we spoke with the Sikhs over a small loud­speaker. We told them that “if you have any mil­i­tary hostages, re­lease them and come out, you will not be killed.” We could hear some noises but could­n’t un­der­stand what was be­ing said.

Fi­nally we heard that they did not have any hostages. Upon hear­ing this the Colonel asked us to leave and said they will han­dle it from here. Gi­ani Zail Singh’s ar­rival was fast ap­proach­ing.

HAR­BIR SINGH: Was fir­ing on­go­ing when Gi­ani Zail Singh ar­rived?

SINGH SAHIB: Fir­ing was con­tin­u­ously on­go­ing here at one place or an­other. How­ever, your re­port that a se­cu­rity per­sonal of Gi­ani Zail Singh’s es­cort was shot is in­ac­cu­rate. When Gi­ani Zail Singh ar­rived, one of his es­cort had an um­brella cov­er­ing him. I sent a se­wadar and asked for the re­moval of the um­brella. They obliged. Gi­ani Zail Singh paid re­spects upon reach­ing Ha­ri­mandir Sahib. The ques­tion of hon­or­ing him with saropa sim­ply did not arise. He asked some of­fi­cer to con­tact me. 

Upon meet­ing, Gi­ani Zail Singh first in­quired about the Jathedar of Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, Gi­ani Kir­pal Singh. I told him that he was safe. Then he asked about the at­tack. I sum­ma­rized the events. Fur­ther I told him that the sol­diers were mov­ing around with naked heads, with boots, and con­tin­u­ously drink­ing and smok­ing within the premises. Their be­hav­ior was in­ap­pro­pri­ate and deroga­tory. When­ever they see a Sikh, they kill him with­out ask­ing any ques­tion.

Hun­dreds of Sikhs have been killed this way. Ad­di­tion­ally, the sa­cred places are be­ing abused by them. They have done things worse than the mughals. How could all this hap­pen un­der a Sikh Pres­i­dent? Gi­ani Zail Singh told me that Shri­mati Gandhi did not tell him any­thing. He said that he wanted to visit on June 7 but could­n’t. He said, “even to­day I have man­aged to come af­ter great dif­fi­culty.” I told Gi­ani Zail Singh that the sol­diers mis­be­haved with me and my staff. They make our job dif­fi­cult. Why not ar­rest us too? He im­me­di­ately or­dered the four gen­er­als, Sun­dar Ji, Dayal, Baradh and Jamwaal to pro­vide se­cu­rity. 

I fur­ther ex­plained that the sol­diers have looted the homes of our staff in­clud­ing Gi­ani Sahibans. Gi­ani Mo­han Singh has been badly beaten, ar­rested and taken away. They wanted to burn the mar­kets be­hind Sri Dar­bar Sahib com­plex. I later learned that the mil­i­tary had planned to burn the whole street around my house and the Kol­sar Bazar. They were saved by Gi­ani Zail Singh. Gi­ani Zail Singh saw the sa­cred copy of Guru Granth Sahib that was in­jured with a bul­let. He had also wit­nessed the state in­side Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib.

Thus upon reach­ing Delhi, he im­me­di­ately sent a pack­age of Ru­malas. I thought even though Gi­ani Zail Singh is a Sikh, the ru­malas are gov­ern­ment prop­erty and there­fore did not use them.

HAR­BIR SINGH: Sar­dar Bhan Singh and Sar­dar Abi­nashi Singh were brought from camps by sol­diers for Sri Dar­bar Sahib’s visit, when were they brought for the first time?

““Who is he? Kill him.” Sol­diers es­cort­ing me re­sponded, “he is the head priest.” Upon reach­ing the Dar­bar Sahib com­plex, in­side I saw Sikhs seated all over the parkarma with their hands tied be­hind their backs with their own tur­bans.”

SINGH SAHIB: Prob­a­bly they were brought on June 8. In­te­rior Min­is­ter, Buta Singh, first ar­rived here on June 9. Sub­se­quently he vis­ited every­day. On June 9, I, Gi­ani Kir­pal Singh Ji, Sar­dar Bhan Singh, Sar­dar Abi­nashi Singh met with Buta Singh in­side Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib and ex­changed views about var­i­ous processes. Sub­se­quently, com­mit­tees were or­ga­nized to take care of trea­sury (Tosha Khana), Mu­seum, and His­tor­i­cal weapons and slowly the processes started im­prov­ing.

 Read: Saka Akal Takht: Trib­ute to the Un­known Saint-Sol­dier of Indo-Sikh bat­tle June 1984

I had in­formed the mil­i­tary on June 7 it­self that five Singh Sahibans will col­lec­tively make all de­ci­sions and take any ac­tions. How­ever, the Jathedar of Sri Akal Takhat is the supreme au­thor­ity. He in­di­vid­u­ally can take any de­ci­sion. Un­til June 16, all Singh Sahibans had gath­ered to­gether.

HAR­BIR SINGH: Your in­ter­view on Do­or­dar­shan, was that given of your free will or un­der the pres­sure of mil­i­tary guns?

SINGH SAHIB: Pun­jab sit­u­a­tion was dan­ger­ous at that mo­ment. Gi­ani Kir­pal Singh had al­ready read his views on TV. What­ever I said was done in con­sul­ta­tion with our or­ga­niz­ers, Sar­dar Bhan Singh and Sar­dar Abi­nashi Singh, etc. This was done to nor­mal­ize the sit­u­a­tion.

How­ever, all state­ments were checked and ap­proved by the mil­i­tary au­thor­i­ties. They were con­stantly say­ing that there is noth­ing here, write more state­ments.

HAR­BIR SINGH: When was the sa­cred maryada of Sri Ha­ri­mandir Sahib re­stored?

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SINGH SAHIB: Sep­tem­ber 29, the com­plex was handed over to us. The in­ter­rupted maryada was re­stored from Oct. 1 on­wards. (The first Ak­hand Path at Har-Ki-Paudi was ini­ti­ated for Gi­ani Sahib Singh Ji.