Amritsar: The Indian Army on Tuesday issued a clarification saying that no air defence guns or other defence resources were deployed within the Golden Temple premises during Operation Sindoor. The clarification came amid reports that the Golden Temple management allowed the army to deploy its air defence guns inside the shrine to counter any missile or drone attack by Pakistan.
Issuing a statement, the army said, “Some media reports are circulating with respect to deployment of AD (air defence) guns in the Golden Temple. It is clarified that no AD guns or any other AD resource were deployed within the premises of Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar (Golden Temple).”
SGPC too rejects reports
Earlier, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) too rejected reports and said that no such permission was given to the Indian Army for the deployment of air defence guns. Sharing further details, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said the administration had contacted them only to switch off the lights during the blackout after tensions increased between India and Pakistan recently. He added that the temple committee fully cooperated with the administration.
Dhami further said that there was no contact from any officers of the Indian army regarding the installation of air defence guns at the Golden Temple. Apart from him, the Head Granthi of the Harmandar Sahib, Giani Raghbir Singh, too clarified that there was no communication to him from the army regarding the matter.
“It is not true that the Army was allowed to deploy air defence guns within the shrine to counter potential drone and missile threats from Pakistan,” added Giani Amarjeet Singh, Additional head priest of the Golden Temple. He said that despite the tense situation in recent days, the religious code of conduct continued at Harmandar Sahib with discipline.
