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Special Group commandos had their base at Sarsawa in Uttar Pradesh. (File photo: India Today)
June 6 is the anniversary of Operation Blue Star that was conducted in 1984 to flush out Khalistani terrorists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. They were led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who had considerable following among Khalistani separatists during the 1980s.
Bhindranwale, the 37-year-old extremist religious preacher, had occupied the Golden Temple in 1981 along with his band of armed men, many of whom were drawn from army and police forces. By 1984, Bhindranwale's radical group had committed targeted killings and led terror attacks causing deaths of over 100 security personnel and civilians, many of them eminent persons.
In 1984, Punjab was under President's Rule in the wake of Khalistan terrorism. Bhindranwale had declared a war on the state and had fallen out of favour of the Congress party that ruled at the Centre.
Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister, went for a decisive action against Bhindranwale. The army was roped in and 20 commandos of the special group entered the Golden Temple at night to free the shrine from armed Khalistani terrorists. This was Operation Blue Star.
Special Group Commandos
The commandos who entered the Golden Temple on June 6, 1984 were part of Special Group of the 56th Commando Company of the Indian Army. They were the only unit of the Indian forces to have received specialised training to fight terrorists having taken control of a sensitive public place and deal with hostage-like situation.
The Special Group or SG commandos, as they were called those days, had been trained by an expert team of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence organisation. The SG had been created in 1981 for special operations. The Israeli trainers were Mossad commandos who had conducted a one-of-its-kind operation to rescue hostages from Uganda's Entebbe airport in 1977.
India did not have diplomatic ties with Israel at that time and the training had been coordinated by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) which had its own arrangement with Mossad. The training was provided to Indian SG commandos at the secret base of Sayeret Matkal.
Training By Mossad
The Indian commandos underwent special anti-terror training for over three weeks in 1983 in the recreated landscapes having busy streets, maze of buildings and vehicles. This training came useful when the special commandos entered the Golden Temple at 10.30 pm on June 6, 34 years ago.
The commandos were in black fatigues and wore night-vision glasses, M-1 steel helmets, bulletproof jackets, and carried sophisticated guns including AK-47 assault rifles. The commandos were capable of jogging at a speed of 40 km per hour.
Operation Blue Star
The Indian Army, it appears, had underestimated the strength of the armed men of Bhindranwale. They were led by a disgraced Indian Army Major General Shabeg Singh, who had been awarded Ati Vishist Seva Medal for providing training to the forces of Mukti Bahini of Bangladesh. He was later dismissed from services on various charges including corruption.
The SG commandos faced tough resistance and were met with unexpected firepower from those hiding inside the Golden Temple. Additional unit of the army was also pressed into action at the Golden Temple against the fighters of Bhindranwale. The shrine was freed from Khalistani terrorists by the next morning.
The SG unit was later pressed into service following the assassination of Indira Gandhi in October, 1984. They had been called for protection of Rajiv Gandhi and his family. The SG later was replaced by the Special Protection Group (SPG) that was raised in 1985 for the security of VIPs.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/sto...dos-mossad-training-israel-1251738-2018-06-06
