A Sikh group has been left “disappointed” after Labour failed to open an inquiry into potential links between the UK and deaths of hundreds of Sikhs at the Golden Temple in India in 1984.
In a letter seen by Sky News, the Sikh Federation told Foreign Secretary David Lammy they had written to him five times since Labour took office and had not received any replies.
Sir Keir Starmer wrote a letter to Sikhs in 2022 promising a Labour government would “open an independent inquiry into Britain’s military role in the Indian army’s 1984 raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar”.
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In 1984, momentum was building for a separate Sikh state to be established – with events eventually turning violent.
This armed insurgency was met by a severe government crackdown.
In 2014, the UK government accidentally revealed they may have been linked to the Golden Temple raid.
Operation Blue Star
In June 1984, Operation Blue Star saw Indian forces storm the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, where separatists had taken refuge.
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale – a Sikh leader and violent revolutionary and key advocate for a Sikh state – was among the hundreds killed. Sikh groups argue the true number of dead was in the thousands.
Months later, prime minister Indira Gandhi, who had ordered the raid on the temple, was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in an act of revenge.
In 2014, documents accidentally released by the British government showed Margaret Thatcher was aware of the Indian state’s intention to raid the temple and in the months before the raid, a British SAS officer provided advice to the Indian government.
Then prime minister David Cameron asked civil servant Jeremy Heywood to conduct an investigation.
Mr Cameron later said:…
