Operation Bluestar anniversary: Balwant Singh Rajoana asks Sikh leaders, religious organisations to maintain peace

Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted for the 1995 assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, has asked all political parties and religious organizations to maintain peace and harmony on the occasion of the upcoming 33rd anniversary of Operation Bluestar on Tuesday.

In a letter written from the central jail at Patiala, Rajoana appealed to all Sikh religious and political organisations to shun their differences apart and pay homage to the martyrs of Operation Bluestar. Operation Bluestar was a military operation carried outin 1984 to flush out heavily-armed terrorists holed up in the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

They were demanding a separate homeland, Khalistan, for Sikhs. Rajoana's two-page handwritten letter was released by his sister Kamaldeep Kaur to the media on Monday. The murder convict asked all factions to maintain dignity of the Akal Takht (highest temporal seat of Sikhs).

"We should pay homage to all martyrs by reciting 'Gurbani' only and notraise any slogans," he wrote. Rajoana, a Babbar Khalsa International terrorist, is the prime convict in the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995.

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In a related development, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Kirpal Singh Badungar on Monday appealed to all Sikh organisations to unite.

Badungar held a meeting with SAD (A) president Simranjit Singh Mann at Fatehgarh Sahib on Sunday. The latter told Badungar that his supporters would offer prayers during the religious programme.

Badungar also met Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh and discussed ways to make the event peaceful in accordance with Sikh 'maryada'. Kanwar Pal assured him that members of all groupsassociated with his party would fully cooperate with the SGPC.