How Mossad Helped R&AW for Operation Blue Star

How Mossad Helped R&AW for Operation Blue Star


Indian military conducted Operation Blue Star between 1 June and 8 June 1984 to flush out Khalistani terrorists and in order to establish control over Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was launched to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the 37-year-old extremist religious preacher who was the leader of Khalistani separatists.

In 1981, the leader of Khalistani separatists had captured the Golden Temple with his band of armed men, many of whom were pulled from the army and police forces. By 1984, the radical group of Bhindranwale had targeted killings and killed more than 100 people including security personnel, civilians, and many well known people.

Bhindranwale had announced a war on the state and the Congress party which ruled the central government in 1984. Due to Khalistani terrorism, President’s Rule was applied in the state. The then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi ordered the military to launch the operation. To remove the terrorists from Golden Temple, an army with 20 special group Commandos entered the Temple at night to neutralize everyone.

Commandos Of Special Force:​

On June 6, 1984, 20 commandos from Special Force of the 56th Commando Company of the Indian Army entered the Golden Temple. The Commandos of Special Force was given the specialised training to fight terrorists who captured the sensitive public places. and to deal with the hostage-like situation.

The expert team of Israel intelligence organisation, Mossad trained the Special Group commandos. To deal with special operations like Operation Blue Star, this SG had been created in 1981. The trainers of Mossad who trained SG Commandos had conducted a one-of-its-kind operation to rescue hostages from Uganda’s Entebbe airport in 1977.

At that time there were no diplomatic relations of India with Israel. Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had arranged the training by Mossad. RAW had its own arrangement with Mossad. Sayeret Matkal was the secret base of training of Special Group commandos.

How Was The Training Of Mossad:​

Special anti-terror training was given to SG for over three weeks in 1983. The special arrangements such as recreated landscapes having busy streets, the maze of buildings and vehicles were created for training. SG applied the training to flush out the Khalistani terrorists from the Golden Temple at 10.30 pm on June 6, 1984.

SG was in black uniform and wore night-vision glasses, M-1 steel helmets, bulletproof jackets, and with sophisticated guns including AK-47 rifles. They were capable to run at a speed of 40 km per hour.
 
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