Lieutenant General (retired) Kuldeep Singh Brar, who led the 1984 Operation Blue Star against Khalistan militants, was attacked by four unidentified assailants in London on Sunday night.
Brar, 78, was on his annual visit to London on Sunday and had no security cover when the attack happened. “Lieutenant General Brar and his wife were in central London when they were attacked by four turbaned men. He did not have any security cover,” sources close to Brar said.
“His wife raised an alarm, following which he was taken to hospital. The assailants had made cuts on his neck,” sources added. Presently he is said to be at home and out of danger.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who is presently in New York, spoke to the Indian High Commissioner in London about the attack. The High Commission officials are closely monitoring the situation.
Brar has been on the hit list of various Sikh militant organisations since he led the operation 28 years ago to smoke out Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other pro-Khalistan militants hiding in the Golden Temple. Brar along with the then Chief of Western Army Command Lieutenant General Krishnaswamy Sundarji and Lieutenant General Ranjeet Singh Dayal planned the operation codenamed Operation Blue Star. Since his retirement, the infantry officer, who also led a unit in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, has been living in high security cantonment in Mumbai.
He has got a ‘Z’ category security cover.
“The militant organisations have been tracking his movements. Last year they had even put the details about his presence at a particular venue, at a specific time in London. So this kind of attack has been inevitable,” sources added.