142 Sikhs taken off home blacklist on Blue Star anniversary

In a strong political message on the eve of the anniversary of Operation Blue Star, the government announced it had removed 142 names out of the list of 169 Sikhs from its blacklist. Home minister P Chidambaram said the list was still being reviewed to verify the details of the remaining 27 names.

The 169 in the blacklist were mainly those who had been accused of terrorist activities during the peak of militancy in Punjab (between 1978 to 1995).

Meanwhile, the ministry has conducted a security review of all its ports, naval bases and oil fields. Chidambaram said that a full scale review was conducted recently with regard to Indian coastal facilities with Indian navy, Union shipping ministry and state governments. India has tightened security at all its high security marine zones and naval bases after the Pakistan incident.

Chidambaram, who completed two-and-a-half years as home minister on Tuesday, said following the Mumbai terror attacks, his foremost objective was to enhance the capacity of intelligence agencies and of security forces, which has been built substantially in the last 30 months.

He said operational battalions of Central Armed Police Forces were raised from 541 to 573; more weapons and equipment were acquired and modernisations of state police forces was done.