Golden Temple gave rare permission to deploy air defence systems to counter Pakistan: Top Army official

The Golden Temple’s Head Granthi granted a rare permission for the deployment of air defence systems within the sacred premises to counter Pakistan’s missile and drone attacks, said Lt Gen Sumer Ivan D'Cunha, Director General of Army Air Defence. 

D'Cunha, in an interview with news agency ANI, said, “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.”

Amritsar was one of the many places targeted by Pakistan with drones and projectiles in response to India’s Operation Sindoor, which was a retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack by terrorists harboured by Pakistan. 

D'Cunha said the Golden Temple authorities realised the imminent 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," he said in the interview.

The army officer, referring to an earlier statement by Major General Kartik C Seshadri, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 15th Infantry Division, said that India visualised what Pakistan was capable of. He said they would target the sacred site 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," he said. 

D'Cunha further added that India has the arsenal to strike targets across the full depth of Pakistan, even if the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) moves from Rawalpindi to areas like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). They will have to "find a deep hole", he said.