More than 28 years after he spearheaded Operation Blue Star to flush out pro-Khalistan militants from the holiest of Sikh shrines, the Golden Temple, Lt General Kuldeep Singh Brar was stabbed by four men just as he stepped out of a hotel along with his wife Meena around 10.40 pm in London on Sunday.
The assailants tried to slit his throat with kirpans but he fought back until his wife raised an alarm and people rushed to help.
Lt Gen Brar, 78, has the highest ‘Z’ category security, but that’s only when he is in India. He had no protection when he was attacked in London, where he is on a private visit. Hiis injuries were described as “serious but not life-threatening”. He was discharged from hospital on Monday afternoon.
“Officers are on the scene, no arrests have been made, inquiries continue,” said the Scotland Yard, which is investigating who could have been behind the attack.
The decorated general saw action in the 1971 war against Pakistan, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. Lt Gen Brar ‘Bulbul’ was commander of the 9 Division based in Meerut as major general and he headed Operation Blue Star.
After Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards, who were incensed with the Army action on Darbar Sahib, and General A S Vaidya was killed by terrorists in Pune on August 10, 1986, Brar was the main target of the militants.
The Brars are returning to India in three or four days.
After retirement, Gen Brar has been living in highly guarded cantonment area of Mumbai. He authored a book, ‘Operation Blue Star: The True Star’, in which, apart from providing information about the Army strategy and its strength during the operation, he also justified the Army action.
Brar had famously said that he and his soldiers entered the Golden Temple with prayers on their lips. Later, accepting that the operation had caused a lot of resentment among Sikhs, he revealed that and uncle of his stopped talking to him. Brar comes from a Sikh family, although he is shorn.
The Scotland Yard is checking the CCTV cameras on the street to nab the attackers.
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