SAD seeks fair deal for ’84 Bluestar deserters

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 28

A delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal led by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal has met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and requested him to examine the case of Sikh soldiers, who left their barracks during Operation Bluestar in 1984.

The SAD has asked the Defence Minister to deal with them on compassionate grounds and rehabilitate them by restoring all Army benefits to them.

Sukhbir said in 1984 many Sikh soldiers left their barracks and places of posting  in Ramgarh Cantonment, Pune, Alwar, Bareilly and a few other places in a state of emotional turmoil. They did not intend to commit sedition or treachery, but were purely expressing their hurt feelings only on the issue of attack on the holiest of Sikh shrines with tanks and mortars.

The SAD president said these soldiers were dismissed from service and were denied all pensionary benefits, causing immense hardship to them and their families.