“It was very nice that the head granthi of the Golden Temple allowed us to deploy our guns,” Lieutenant General Sumer Ivan D’Cunha said in an exclusive interview with ANI on Monday. He claimed that the Golden Temple authorities’ extraordinary cooperation followed the deployment of Indian Army guns after they were briefed on the seriousness of the threat. The general officer commanding (GOC) of the 15 Infantry Division, Major General Kartik C. Seshadri, spoke before him. He claimed that India’s air defence system had successfully intercepted and destroyed Pakistani forces’ drones and missiles that were aimed at the Golden Temple in order to safeguard the shrine.
Giani Raghbir Singh called the remarks “propaganda” and stated, “No army officer contacted me. Neither a gun deployment nor any incident of that nature occurred at Sri Darbar Sahib. For 22 days, I was on leave in the United States. On April 24, I went, and on May 14, I came back. After I left, the conflict began, and it ended before I came back. If any members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee are discovered to be involved in this matter, the committee should look into the army’s claims and take departmental action.
Giani Raghbir Singh, a former Akal Takht jathedar, told reporters in Amritsar: “The SGPC worked with the government to implement the blackout at Sri Harmandar Sahib, but such claims by the generals are shockingly untrue.”
Additional head granthi Giani Amarjit Singh, who was substituted for Giani Raghbir Singh in the SGPC’s official statement, explained that the Sri Harmandar Sahib management had complied with the district administration’s blackout instructions by turning off the complex’s exterior lights for the allotted amount of time.
However, the sanctity of the place was preserved, and lights were kept on in areas where the religious code of conduct is followed. He reiterated that the army had not been granted permission to be stationed at the shrine. He claimed that despite the tension along the border, the religious code of conduct was observed.
According to SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, no army officer got in touch with him, and the shrine did not have an air defence gun installed. According to him, devotees continued performing sewa (volunteer work) at Sri Harmandar Sahib even during the blackout, and the sangat (followers) would have undoubtedly noticed if such an incident had taken place.