Sanctuary in The Golden Temple
The law and order situation started to deteriorate. While the Akalis pressed on with their two-pronged strategy of negotiations and massive campaigns of civil disobedience directed at the Central Government, others were not so enamoured of nonviolence. Communists known as “Naxalites”, armed Sikh groups – the “Babbar Khalsa” and “Dal Khalsa (International)”, criminal gangs and the police clashed, and sometimes worked hand in hand. A covert government group known as the Third Agency was also engaged in dividing and destabilising the Sikh movement through the use of undercover officers, paid informants and agents provocateurs. Bhindranwale himself always wore a pistol belt and encouraged his followers to be armed.
In July 1982, Sant Longowal invited Sant Jarnail Singh Bindranwale to take up residence at the Golden Temple compound. He called the tough-minded Sant “our stave to beat the government.” Bhindranwale subsequently took shelter with a large group of his armed followers, in the Guru Nanak Niwas (Guest house), in the precincts of the Golden Temple.
In late July 1983, finding an increasing number of his followers arrested day by day, Bhindranwale left his base in Chowk Mehta to start a peaceful campaign for their release from the Golden Temple complex. From there, he joined his campaign to the Akali campaign for their political, economic, cultural, and religious demands. In the chaos of Punjab, Bhindranwale developed a reputation as a man of principle who could settle people's problems about land, property or any other matter without needless formality or delay. The judgement would be accepted by both parties and carried out. This added to his popularity.
On 15 December 1983, finding himself in danger of being arrested for threats he had made against some nationalist organizations, Sant Jarnail Singh and his entourage moved to the holy Akal Takhat over the objections of Giani Kirpal Singh, the head priest of the place. However, the facts reveal that Bhindranwale used his political connection with Gurcharan Singh Tohra, president of the Gurdwara committee and the man responsible for keeping the peace in the Golden Temple complex, to overrule the head priest. He fortified the temple with heavy machine-guns and sophisticated self-loading rifles were brought in. Mark Tully and Satish Jacob wrote, "All terrorists were known by name to the shopkeepers and the householders who live in the narrow alleys surrounding the Golden Temple... the Punjab police must have known who they were also, but they made no attempt to arrest them. By this time Bhindranwale and his men were above the law." However, Ranbhir Sandhu states that Bhindranwale presented himself, along with over 50 of his supporters, at the Deputy Commissioner's residence on the day he moved to the Darbar Sahib complex: therefore, his pupropse in moving there was not hide from the law. Gurdev Singh, District Magistrate at Amritsar till shortly before the invasion is on record as having assured the Governor of the state that he could arrest anyone in Darbar Sahib at any time.
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