The Indian Army has clarified that no air defence guns were deployed within the premises of Amritsar’s Golden Temple for countering potential drone and missile threats from Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
“Some media reports are circulating with respect to deployment of AD Guns in The Golden Temple. It is clarified that NO AD guns or any other AD resource was deployed within the premises of Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar (The Golden Temple)," the army said in a statement.
Indian Army’s in-charge of air defence Lieutenant General Sumer Ivan D’Cunha, in an interview with news agency ANI, had claimed that the Head Granthi of the Golden Temple had allowed the Indian Army to deploy air defence guns within the shrine.
“It was very nice that the Head Granthi of the Golden Temple allowed us to deploy our guns. It is possibly for the first time in many years that they switched off the Golden Temple lights so that we could see the drone coming," Lt General D’Cunha had said.
“Fortunately, we visualised what they (Pakistan) were capable of doing. Realising that they would target it because they had no legitimate targets across the border. They were more interested in creating confusion, chaos internally, and hence, we visualised that they would target our civil population and our religious places of worship," he added.After the officer’s claim, the head of the apex religious body of the Sikhs the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Sikh religious authorities clarified that no such permission was granted.
SGPC President Harjinder Singh Dhami said that while the administration contacted them only about switching off the lights during the blackout after recent escalation of tension between India and Pakistan, they fully cooperated in the interest of administrative responsibility while maintaining the sanctity of the ongoing ’maryada’ (conduct).Harmandar Sahib’s Head Granthi, Giani Raghbir Singh, also clarified that although he was on a foreign visit during the Operation Sindoor, there was no communication with him regarding any gun deployment, nor did any such incident occur at the Golden temple.
Additional head priest of the Golden Temple Giani Amarjeet Singh said it is not true that the Army was allowed to deploy air defence guns within the shrine to counter potential drone and missile threats from Pakistan.Singh said this claim was shockingly untrue and outrightly rejected it.
He clarified that the management of Harmandar Sahib had cooperated with the district administration’s guidelines regarding the city-wide blackout by switching off exterior and upper lights of the complex within the specified time frame.However, lights at locations where religious code of conduct is observed were kept on, and the sanctity the religious place was maintained with full responsibility, he said.
Singh reiterated that the daily religious practices at Sri Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple), the Langar of Guru Ramdas Ji, places of Sri Akhand Path Sahib, and other related gurdwaras were conducted according to strict protocols, and no one has the right to interfere with them.
During the recent conflict with India, Pakistan attempted to target the revered shrine and other cities of Punjab with missiles and drones, but the attacks were successfully thwarted by the Indian Army.
On Monday, the Indian Army showcased via a video that how the attempt was foiled by Indian Air Defence systems, including the AKASH missile system and the L-70 Air Defence Guns.
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