Swordfight wounds 6 at Indian Golden Temple on 1984 massacre anniversary (VIDEO)
Sword-wielding Sikhs clashed at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, as prayers were being held to commemorate the bloody military assault at the holy place on this date 30 years ago.
Footage from the event showed the Sikhs slashing wildly at one another on the steps of the temple in the northern state of Punjab.
At least six people, among them a police chief constable, were injured in the clashes, said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special) Harjit Singh Brar, the Indian Express reported.
The violence initially ignited from disagreements over a microphone and who would be the first to speak at the holy ceremony, according to local reports.
“Today we were supposed to have a solemn remembrance for the martyrs of 1984, so what has happened is very sad,” Prem Singh Chandumajra, spokesman for Punjab state's ruling party, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), told reporters.” The temple has once again been dishonored today,” he said.
At the same venue on June 6, 1984, hundreds of people died, over 80 of whom were soldiers. However, Sikhs say that many more were killed in the clashes, placing the figure over 1,000.
Operation Blue Star was undertaken with the intention of purging the temple of the Sikh separatists, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Events culminated in the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in October that year. In subsequent November anti-Sikh riots across Delhi, some 3,000 were killed.
