Rattan Raina
“DG Sahib! LIFAFA TO KHALLI HAI? YEH SAB KYA HAI?” The Chief Minister asked visibly upset! “Sir, Sir we were very busy. We will do the needful immediately after the parade is over – or the words to this effect”, DG (Police) replied.
In early eighties, large number of terrorists trained in Pakistan had managed to gain sufficient foothold in the various cities of Punjab State especially in Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Batala etc. Incidents of Bomb blasts in the crowded bazaars and religious places as also the target killings of political leaders would take place on daily basis. Scores of innocent people of all communities would thus get killed for no fault of theirs. The law and order machinery in the state of Punjab had totally broken down and the Central Govt. had to rush thousands of para military forces to restore the order.
Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale of Dami-Dami Taksal had started a movement for the creation of a separate and independent STATE OF KHALISTAN and had managed to take absolute control of the entire Golden Temple Complex including Harmandir Sahib. Along with him, a large number of terrorists had also taken shelter inside the complex. The terrorists would often come out of the holy shrine, indulge in arson and killing in various parts of Punjab and then go back inside and stay there. Besides, huge quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives had also been stored inside the Golden Temple which must have obviously taken considerable time to do so. How these terrorists managed to hoodwink all the intelligence agencies in the process has remained a mystery till today.
When the killings of civilians on large scale did not bring about the desired results, the terrorists changed their strategy. They now started killing Punjab Police personnel and their family members. One Mr. Atwal, a DIG of Police was gunned down at the gate of the holy shrine when he had gone there to offer prayers. As the state Government totally failed to handle the situation, the Central Government imposed Governor’s rule in the state to restore law and order.
Since there was no way out but to flush out the terrorists from the holy shrine, it was decided to handover the task to India Army. So a military operation code named BLUE STAR was launched on the night of 5/6 June 1984 and the Army moved inside the complex which was heavily fortified under the guidance of one retired Maj Gen Shahbeg Singh. There were heavy casualties on both the sides and during the operation, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale along with large number of terrorists as also civilians were killed. Huge quantity of arms and ammunition was also seized by Army. Though normalcy within the holy shrine was completely restored but stray incidents of target killings and bomb blasts still continued to take place in various cities of Punjab. The Central Government however, finally decided to end the Governor’s rule and handover administration to the elected representatives by holding Assembly election in the state.
As soon as the date of election was announced by the Election Commission, a word went around in J&K state that a special Police contingent of about 400 police personnel would be deputed to Punjab to assist the administration over there to conduct elections. It was no easy task to hold elections in Punjab as the ISI and the terrorists were hell bent to disrupt the process by all means possible. Though the central government had kept Army as stand by and called for police contingents from many other states as well to help Punjab administration but to hold elections in such surcharge atmosphere was really a great challenge.
About the police contingent to be deputed from J&K state, a moot question arose as to who would head the contingent and go to Punjab. Not having any exposure to terrorism related duties so far, the truth remained that nobody wanted to stick his neck out and get killed or injured in the process. Couple of names, however, started making rounds but as usual, the influential lot managed to use their contacts and avoided this sensitive though challenging duty.
One fine morning, a message was conveyed to me that I was to head the J&K Police contingent and should accordingly make necessary preparations. The exercise started and bout 350 officers and jawans from J&K Armed Police were specially selected for the job. Finally, I along with my police contingent of 350 personnel left Jammu and reached Guradaspur in the evening where I was told that our contingent had been allotted two areas for duty;
Our contingent was given two specific jobs. One guarding the buildings where the ballot boxes had been stored in Batala and Gurdaspur, and secondly to provide protection to those candidates who had a very high threat perception. Both the duties carried high risk of terrorist attacks as they were hell bent to disrupt the whole process in Punjab. On the other hand the police contingents of other states having reaching Punjab much before us, had already taken over all sort duties.
Here, I must give credit to all of my officers and jawans for having worked with utmost dedication and responsibility thereby bringing laurels to the state of J&K. And besides, I must also admit that the lady luck also favoured us a lot. Many a time, when incidents of firing and bomb blasts took place in our areas of duty, luckily none of us suffered any casualty. On the other hand number of police personnel of the other state police contingents got killed and injured and few were even kidnapped from their posts alongwith their personal weapons. It is pertinent to mention here that the J&K Police contingent was the only one whose performance was highly appreciated by the then Governor of Punjab and conveyed in his DO letter to Chief Minister of J&K Late Shri G.M. Shah
However after about a month and a half when the elections were over, I alongwith the police contingent returned to Jammu where we received the orders to move to Srinagar immediately. Accordingly, all of us, 350 in all moved from Jammu to Srinagar, where a grand function was organized in KAP lines, Batmaloo. A special parade was held comprising of these very 350 officers and jawans and attended by the Chief Minister, his entire cabinet and all senior Army and Government functionaries.
I was directed to command the parade myself and felt honoured to do so. The then Director General of Police J&K, in his address, aptly narrated the entire chain of events describing extremely difficult conditions in which the J&K state police personnel had performed their duties so well though at great risk to their lives. After the Chief Minister, Late G.M. Shah concluded his speech, my platoon and company commanders, were called one by one to the dias and the Chief Miniser gave a trophy to each one as a token of appreciation.
And at last my name was finally called and I marched to the dias with my ceremonial sword in hand, saluted the Chief Minister and stood in attention. The Chief Minister was flanked by the then Director General of Police, IGP Armed Police and many other senior officers. “What are we going to give to this officer?”, the Chief Minister asked the DG police. ‘Sir, here is an envelope and it contains a letter of appreciation to Rattan Raina on behalf of the Government”., the DG Police replied. The Chief Minister, GM Shah, looked at me, smiled and handed over the sealed envelope to me. Before I could take one step back and salute him, as per the drill manual, he took the sealed envelope back from my hand and said, “let me read it first.” The Chief Minister himself opened the sealed envelope and his whole expression changed.
“DG Sahib- LIFAFA to KHAALI HAI. YEH SAB KYA HAI,” the Chief Minister asked visibly upset. ‘Sir, Sir, we were very busy and did not get time to do so but we will do the needful immediately after the function is over”. , the DG police replied. (or the words to this effect). The Chief Minister, Mr. G.M. Shah otherwise known for his fiery temper, kept quiet, shook my hands again and put the empty envelope in my hands under the total glare of press and TV crew.
Thereafter, for a long time, it became a great joke in our police organization. Wherever I would go, my senior officers and colleagues would always give me a big smile and ask “RAINA WOH KHALI LIFAFA KAHAN RAKHA” (Where did you keep that empty envelope)?
However I did receive, subsequently, a six line appreciation note from the DG Police (J&K) delivered to me through one police constable.
(The author is former IPS Officer)
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