Operation Woodrose

Operation Woodrose
Part of the Khalistan movement & Insurgency in Punjab
State of Punjab shown in red
Date June – September 1984 (>3 months) [1] [2] Location Punjab, India Result Intensification of the insurgency: Intended ethnic cleansing and genocide of Amritdhaari Sikhs* [3] creating further "considerable alienation among a broad cross-section" of the Sikh population. [1]
Casualties and losses
More than 100,000 Sikh civilians reported killed or missing; [2] [4] true number unknown [5]

Operation Woodrose was a military operation carried out by the Indira Gandhi-led Indian government in the months after Operation Blue Star to "prevent the outbreak of widespread public protest" in the state of Punjab. ^[1] The government arrested all prominent members of the largest Sikh political party, the Akali Dal, and banned the All India Sikh Students Federation, a large students' union. ^[1] In addition, the Indian Army conducted operations in the countryside during which thousands of Sikhs, overwhelmingly young men, were detained for interrogation and subsequently tortured. ^[1] Despite its purported success in controlling the armed insurgency in the Punjab region, the operation was criticized by human-rights groups for the suspension of civil liberties and habeas corpus, resulting in the disappearances of thousands of Sikh men. After the operation, the central government was criticized for using "draconian legislation" to repress a minority community. ^[1]

Contents

• Conduct of the operation
• Punjab-Chandigarh Disturbed Area Act (1983) and other measures
• Outcome
• See also
• References

Conduct of the operation

The operation consisted of the rounding up of thousands of Sikh youth and civilians. Troops would lay siege to targeted villages in the early-morning hours, confining the inhabitants to their houses and stopping all movement out of the village while conducting house-to house raids. Some villages experienced repeated sieges. ^[6] Sikh homes were raided indiscriminately, with an overwhelming number of detained being innocents. ^[2]

According to estimates published by Inderjit Singh Jaijee, approximately 8,000 individuals were reported as missing or killed by October 1984 as a result of Army operations during Woodrose alone (not including Operation Blue Star where over 5,000 civilians were killed ^{[7] [8]} ) by state media, though Punjabi-language media estimated much higher figures. ^[2] According to Dr. Sangat Singh, who served in the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Government of India in the 1970s, about 100,000 youth had been taken into custody within the first four to six weeks of the operation, with many not heard from again, ^[9] with many taken into custody beaten and tortured. ^[5]

The operation was mainly concentrated in the border districts, and all amritdhari , or initiated, Sikh men from ages 15 to 60, particularly between 15 and 35, were referred to as "potential" terrorists in Army communiqués and targeted and taken from border villages. ^{[2] [9]} Since the most likely targets were youth, many would try to flee across the border to Pakistan as the army approached. At first, Pakistani authorities jailed them as trespassers, before realizing their potential use, exploiting their resentment and distress to return a number of them as armed, motivated militants. ^[6] About 20,000 fleeing youth are estimated to have crossed the border. ^[9] Extrajudicial abuse extended even to distinguished Sikh army veterans; ^[5] as Sikh ex-servicemen formed a large proportion of the rural Sikh population at about half a million at any given time. ^[6] Between the army's treatment of youth, veterans, and the old and infirm, rumors abounded in the countryside that the state was trying to wipe out the younger generation of a small minority and was systematically engaged in its suppression. An atmosphere of fear and suspicion continued in the countryside for several months. ^[6] Even after the formal end of the operation in September 1984, the community remained at the mercy of the authoritarian state apparatus; its deep, long-lasting sense of distress and disgruntlement would later become a significant factor in precipitating the subsequent militancy. ^[10]

Even after the operation, hundreds of men, women, and even children, picked up from the countryside, remained incarcerated. ^[11]

Punjab-Chandigarh Disturbed Area Act (1983) and other measures

To allow for the legality of the operation, the states of Punjab and Chandigarh had been declared by the Indian government as 'disturbed areas' by the enactment of the Punjab Chandigarh Disturbed Area Act 1983, ^[12] while the Army was given unprecedented powers to detain and arrest civilians by the enactment of the Armed Forces (Punjab and Chandigarh) Act 1983. ^[13] The act empowered any commissioned, warrant or non-commissioned officer of the Army if "of opinion that it is necessary so to do for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning as he may consider necessary, fire upon or otherwise use forces, even to the causing of death". The act also allowed such an officer to "arrest, without warrant, any person who has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence".

Fast Track courts were set up under the Terrorist Affected Areas (Special Courts) Act 1984 ^[14] to try to sentence suspected terrorists rapidly. ^[15]

Outcome

Punjab Chief of Police, Kanwar Pal Singh Gill described the actions as "suffering from all the classical defects of army intervention in civil strife" and stated that the Indian Army had acted "blindly". ^[16]

The army operations were overseen by Major General Jagdish Singh Jamwal, who was assigned the responsibility to seal the international border with Pakistan, in an attempt to control smuggling of arms and personnel, and by Lieutenant General Ranjit Singh Dyal, who was instructed to oversee the apprehension of militants in state of Punjab. ^[2]

See also

• Kharku
• Operation Black Thunder

Related Research Articles

Sikhs are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term Sikh has its origin in the Sanskrit word śiṣya, meaning 'seeker', 'disciple' or 'student'.

The Khalistan movement is an independence movement seeking to create a separate homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno‐religious sovereign state called Khalistan in the Punjab region of India. The proposed boundaries of Khalistan vary between different groups; some suggest the entirety of the Sikh-majority Indian state of Punjab, while larger claims include Pakistani Punjab and other parts of North India such as Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Shimla and Lahore have been proposed as the capital of Khalistan.

Operation Blue Star was a military operation by the Indian Armed Forces conducted between 1 and 10 June 1984 to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other Sikh militants from the Golden Temple, a holy site of Sikhism, and its adjacent buildings.

Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was an Indian militant. He was the leading figure of the Khalistan movement, although he did not personally advocate for a separate Sikh nation.

Babbar Khalsa also known as Babbar Khalsa International, is a Sikh militant organisation that aims to create an independent nation-state of Khalistan in the Punjab region of South Asia. It has used armed attacks, assassinations and bombings in aid of that goal, and is deemed to be a terrorist entity by various governments. Besides India, it operates in North America and Europe, including Scandinavia.

The Insurgency in Punjab was an armed campaign by the separatists of the Khalistan movement from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Economic and social pressures driven by the Green Revolution prompted calls for Sikh autonomy and separatism. This movement was initially peaceful, but foreign involvement and political pressures drove a heavy handed response from Indian authorities. The demand for a separate Sikh state gained momentum after the Indian Army's Operation Blue Star in 1984 aimed to flush out militants residing in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a holy site for Sikhs. Terrorism, police brutality and corruption of the authorities greatly exacerbated a tense situation. By the mid-1980s, the movement had evolved into a militant secessionist crisis due to the perceived indifference of the Indian state in regards to mutual negotiations. Eventually, more effective police and military operations, combined with a policy of rapprochement by the Indian government and the election loss of separatist sympathizers in the 1992 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, largely quelled the rebellion by the mid-1990s.

The Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) is a Khalistani militant organisation operating in the Punjab with prominent members based in Canada, United Kingdom and Pakistan. Its objective is the creation of a sovereign Sikh nation‐state of Khalistan through armed struggle. It is responsible for numerous assassinations, abductions, and military engagements with the Indian Armed Forces during the Insurgency in Punjab. The KLF is also listed as a designated terrorist group by India.

Shabeg Singh, PVSM, AVSM, was an Indian military officer. He had previously served in the Indian Army but later joined the militant movement of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Jaswant Singh Khalra (1952–1995) was a prominent Sikh human rights activist.

Operation Black Thunder is the name given to two operations that took place in India in the late 1980s to remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple using 'Black Cat' commandos and commandos from Border Security Force. Like Operation Blue Star, these attacks were on the Sikh militants based in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab.

The Dashmesh Regiment is a militant group, and is part of the Khalistan movement to create a Sikh homeland called Khalistan via armed struggle.

Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 a.m. on 31 October 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star by the Indian Army between 1 and 8 June 1984 on the orders of Gandhi. The military operation was to remove Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple of Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Punjab, the holiest site of Sikhism. The military action resulted in the death of many pilgrims as well as damage to the Akal Takht and the destruction of the Sikh Reference Library.

Bhai Manbir Singh Chaheru, also known as General Hari Singh was an Indian militant, Sikh separatist, and the first leader of the Khalistan Commando Force.

The International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) is a proscribed organisation that aims to establish an independent homeland for the Sikhs called Khalistan. It is banned as a terrorist organisation under Australian, Japanese, Indian, Canadian and American counter-terrorism legislation. The Government of India has declared it a terrorist organisation. While banned, the organization continues to receive financial support from many Sikh people based in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar, PVSM, AVSM, VrC is a retired Indian Army officer, who was involved in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. As a major general, he commanded Operation Blue Star.

From 1984 to 1995, the state of Punjab in northern India was engaged in a power struggle between the militant secessionist Khalistan movement and Indian security forces. The Indian government responded to the escalating Punjab insurgency by launching Operation Blue Star in 1984, storming the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple complex in Amritsar—the center of Sikh religious and spiritual life, where some militant groups had retreated. The Operation was controversial and resulted in death of hundreds of civilians, militants and soldiers. After Sikh bodyguards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a state wide massacre ensued.

The Dharam Yuddh Morcha was a political movement launched on 4 August 1982, by the Akali Dal in partnership with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, with its stated aim being the fulfillment of a set of devolutionary objectives based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution.

Kharku is a Punjabi term used as a self-designation by Sikh militants of the Punjab insurgency who were followers of the Khalistan movement.

References