London: Britain has said that it gave limited advice to India on its contingency plans for action against Sikh terrorists holed up in the Golden temple during operation blue star.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in the British Parliament, “The nature of the UK’s assistance was purely advisory, limited and provided to the Indian government at an early stageâ€.
However General Kuldip Singh Brar, who commanded the operation maintained that the British government did not provide him with any advice nor support.
William Hague, UK Foreign Secretary, was speaking at the House of Commons on Operation Bluestar and Britain’s alleged role in the 1984 assault that left 500 dead.
The review was ordered after previously top secret documents showed British elite forces played an advisory role following a request from New Delhi over a plan to flush out militants who had occupied the temple in northwest India considered Sikhism’s holiest shrine.
With the approval of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, an officer from the elite Special Air Service (SAS) travelled to India and drew up a plan which was approved by India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
It is not known how close the February 1984 plan was to the Operation Blue Star, which triggered a cycle of revenge attacks.
Retired lieutenant-general K. S. Brar, who led the eventual June 1984 assault, said it was the first he had heard of it.
In retaliation, Gandhi was assassinated four months later by two Sikh bodyguards.
That triggered anti-Sikh riots in which thousands of people were killed, mostly in New Delhi