Indian Army on Tuesday clarified that no air defence guns were deployed within the premises of Amritsar’s Golden Temple

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The Indian Army on Tuesday clarified that no air defence guns were deployed within the premises of Amritsar’s Golden Temple for countering potential drone and missile threats from Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

“Some media reports are circulating with respect to deployment of AD Guns in The Golden Temple. It is clarified that NO AD guns or any other AD resource was deployed within the premises of Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar (The Golden Temple)," the army said in a statement.

ZZZZ Earlier reports claimed otherwise !!

The Head Granthi of the Golden Temple in Amritsar granted a rare permission for the deployment of air defence systems within the sacred premises to counter the missile and drone attacks from Pakistan, the Indian Army’s Air Defence Chief has said.

Lights switched off for first time to spot incoming drones

Major General Kartik C Seshadri, General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the 15th Infantry Division, said Pakistan targeted the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, with missiles and drones on May 8. 

He said that the Indian Army had anticipated Pakistan's move to target its military installations along with civilian establishments, including religious places like the Golden Temple. 

Amritsar was targeted multiple times by Pakistani drones and projectiles in response to India’s Operation Sindoor, which was launched as retaliation for the April 22 terrorist attacks in Pahalgam.  

"It was very nice that the Head Granthi of the Golden Temple allowed us to deploy our guns. It is possibly for the first time in many years that they switched off the Golden Temple lights so that we could see the drone coming," Lt Gen Sumer Ivan D'Cunha told news agency ANI.

The Director General of Army Air Defence further noted that the Golden Temple authorities "realised there was a potential threat once it was explained to them. 

They allowed us to deploy guns to secure and protect a national war monument of international repute, which is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every day. As a result, the guns were deployed, and the Golden Temple's lights were switched off."

Referring to an earlier statement by Major General Kartik C Seshadri, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 15th Infantry Division, who revealed that Army Air Defence gunners had successfully intercepted all drones and missiles aimed at the Golden Temple, D'Cunha added that the Indian Army had anticipated Pakistan might target religious sites near the border, given the absence of legitimate military targets.  

"Fortunately, we visualised what they (Pakistan) were capable of doing. Realising that they would target it because they had no legitimate targets across the border. 

They were more interested in creating confusion, chaos internally, and hence, we visualised that they would target our civil population and our religious places of worship," Lieutenant General D'Cunha said.  Major General Seshadri, who also detailed the Indian Army’s operations at the Golden Temple, confirmed that all attacks on the Sikh shrine were successfully thwarted.

“The Pakistan Army has no legitimate targets to strike inside India, nor does it have the courage or capability to confront the Indian armed forces face to face. Hence, it uses terrorism as a state policy and resorts to launching unmanned aerial weapons from its own soil. They have even targeted religious places, particularly along the Indian border, a case in point being the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which witnessed a surge in drone and missile attacks that were bravely thwarted by our Army Air Defence gunners,” the Major said.

India and Pakistan were recently engaged in heightened military action after India launched strikes on terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam. 

In retaliation, Pakistan targeted Indian civilian areas with nearly 1,000 drones, all of which were successfully shot down by Indian air defence systems. 

India also inflicted significant damage on Pakistani air bases and caused substantial casualties within the Pakistan Army.

"Knowing that Pak Army does not have any legitimate targets, we anticipated that they will target Indian military installations, civilian targets including religious places. 

Of these, Golden Temple appeared to be the most prominent. We mobilised additional modern air defence assets to give a holistic air defence umbrella cover to Golden Temple," Maj Gen Seshadri said. 

He further said that Pakistan launched some Kamikaze drones, surface-to-surface, and air-to-surface missiles were launched directly for the Golden Temple. 

Further, the GOC of the 15th Infantry Division said that the armed forces targeted several places, including Muridke and Bahawalpur, in Pakistan with "absolute precision". 

"Of these (nine) targets, Muridke, which is in proximity to Lahore, houses the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba headquarters and also the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) headquarters at Bahawalpur, which were struck with absolute precision. 

Soon after the strikes, we issued a statement clarifying that we intentionally did not target any Pakistani military or civilian infrastructure," he pointed out. 

ends