The Centre will convene a high- level meeting next week to review the security of all the officers who took part in the 1984 ‘Operation Blue Star’ for flushing out the Sikh militants led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple.
And the move follows the alleged bid on the life of Lt Gen (Retd) K S Brar by suspected Dal Khalsa militants in London on September 30. Union Home Secretary R K Singh will chair the meeting which will be attended by the Secretary, Internal Security, Army representative, the city police chief (CP) and the Maharashtra Police. The meeting will also discuss the security lapse which resulted in the attack on Brar.
“Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) did not receive any information regarding Brar’s travel to London though he said he had informed local military officials in Mumbai. The meeting will discuss the entire procedure of communicating in such a situation threadbare,” MHA officials said.
Presently, the former General is provided with ‘Z’ category security cover which includes 11 commandos guarding him and his family members round-the-clock. And Brar’s security was reviewed by the MHA in June and it had decided to continue with the arrangements given the high-level of threat perception.
More arrests
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard police which is probing the attack on Brar has so far arrested 12 people including a woman on suspicion of conspiracy to assassinate the decorated General, who was in charge of the military operation at the Golden Temple. And all the suspects were taken to a central London police station for interrogation.
“Officers from the Counter Terrorism Command have arrested a further eight people in connection with the investigation into the attempted murder. A number of search warrants have also been executed in connection with this investigation. The searches are being carried out at a residential address in South Shields, a residential address in Birmingham and two residential addresses in London,” a release from Scotland Yard said.
However, the investigators refused to divulge further details unearthed by them. Nonetheless, Scotland Yard said the attack on Brar might have led to concern among Indian and Sikh communities living in London.
“While we are aware that there has been a great deal of speculation about possible motivation for this attack, it would not be helpful to our investigation to comment further at this stage,” it said.
