India has “noted” the contents of a report, presented to the British Parliament on Tuesday, which says British military’s role in the 1984 Operation Blue Star to expulse militants from the Golden Temple was limited and advisory, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said on Tuesday.
In a brief statement here, he expressed satisfaction with the British response as London kept New Delhi informed and immediately shared the outcome of the U.K. government’s probe.
U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague denied that the U.K. had played an active role in the operation that took place in the temple complex in Amritsar 30 years ago.
Making a statement on the inquiry into the alleged assistance given to India by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Mr. Hague said: “The report concludes that the nature of the U.K.’s assistance was purely advisory and limited, and [it was] provided to the Indian government at an early stage in their planning.”
The Foreign Office said that after sifting through 200 files and 23,000 documents, it found one military adviser had visited India between February 8 and 19, 1984, to advise intelligence services on their contingency plans for military operations against armed militants entrenched in the temple complex.
