A clash between task force volunteers of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and radical Sikh activists on the 30th anniversary of the Indian army’s Operation Blue Star at Golden Temple complex in Amritsar today has left at least 12 people injured.

Swords and sticks were openly used as scores of men from both sides chased each other outside the Akal Takht building inside the complex, which is home to the holiest of Sikh shrines - ‘Harmandar Sahib’.

Many people could be seen running for cover to save themselves, The Times of India reported.

Eyewitnesses said the clash occurred when activists of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) were stopped by the SGPC task force volunteers from brandishing swords and other traditional weapons and raising pro-Khalistan slogans inside the complex.

This led to a clash between both sides just after the religious ceremony to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Operation Blue Star had ended this morning.

Tensions continued to prevail inside the shrine complex and even media personnel were manhandled during the incident, said the English daily.

Senior police officials in plain clothes have been deployed in the complex.

Top SGPC functionaries including its president Avtar Singh Makkar and Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh were inside the complex when the incident took place.

Heavily-armed terrorists led by separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale were flushed out of the Golden Temple complex by the Indian army in its Operation Blue Star in June 1984. The then-prime minister Indira Gandhi had ordered the operation.

Punjab witnessed a bloody phase of terrorism between 1981 to 1992 as separatists demanded a Sikh homeland - Khalistan (Land of the pure) which saw over 25,000 people including hundreds of security forces personnel killed during that period.

- Bernama