No Records Show UK Involvement in Op Bluestar: Khurshid

Rejecting reports of involvement of the Margaret Thatcher government in the Operation Bluestar to flush out militants, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said there are no records indicating this and the entire operation was carried out by the Indian Army.

"Our record do not indicate anything. The general who was involved, General Brar has also clarified that as far as what was done was an army operation and planned by the army entirely. Therefore I am not quite sure there is much for me to add in terms of value or in terms of information," he said on the sidelines of an event.

Khurshid said if there was some formal communication, "they (British) would tell us what they have found and it was only after that the government would be in a position to comment on it".

Declassified documents in the UK indicated that Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) officials had been dispatched to help India in the planning on the raid of the Golden Temple.

However, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain's role was "limited" and "purely advisory" and had little impact on the actual assault.

On Akali Dal demanding an unconditional apology from both the governments on the issue, Khurshid said, "Apologies for what? Apology for a paper that has come out? Or apology for what happened? The whole world knows that what happened was a tragic event and under what circumstances we intervened. We know the price of that intervention to the nation and our humanity as a whole."

He went on to add, "Should we now be re-opening wounds of the past or should we all collectively and together try to heal those wounds and ensure we continue to move forward in peace rather than score points on each other."