Timeline snf Troops : 1984 Operation Blue Star -1

Dalvinder Singh Grewal · Jun 3, 2026

Timeline and Troops in 1984 Operation Blue Star -1
Dr Dalvinder Singh Grewal

I collected the material on Operation Blue Stars, the events leading and following through the available materials, interviews, personal visits, videographing, photographing, and observing the changing situation. The operation has been termed as a sequence to the holocaust, which was the outcome of three major events, i.e., (a) the partition of India in 1947, where Sikhs were devoid of their self-rule of Punjab as against Hindustan for Hindus and Pakistan for Muslims as per the feelings of some; (b) the emergency in India and the role of Sikhs, especially Tohra and Badal, who were an eyesore in the eyes of Indira Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh, and the feud between Giani Zail Singh and Darbara Singh; and (c) the subsequent propagation of Sant Bhindranwale by Giani Zail Singh to dominate/dislodge Darbara Singh and dominate Akalis. Hence, the timeline has been developed from the year 1947 onwards:

2 June 1947: Birth of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale at Rode, District Ferozepur.
15 August 1947: India Partitioned into India and Pakistan
April 1971: Anandpur Sahib Resolution passed by Akali Dal
November 1973: Sikh High Priests declare Nirankaris renegades and excommunicate them from the Sikh Panth since the Nirankari Head had declared himself a Guru in line with the 10th Gurus.
26 June 1975: Indira Gandhi declares emergency. Akalis opposed the emergency by sending batches for arrest and siding with Janata Dal.
27 March 1977: Government of Janta Dal formed under Parkash Singh Badal as CM.
1977: Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale declared head of Damdami Taksal
13 April 1978: Clash between Nirankaris and Sikhs at Amritsar. 13 Sikhs and 3 Nirankaris killed. Babar Khalsa Head Fauja Sigh was the first to be shot.
24 April 1980: The Nirankari head Baba Gurbachan Singh murdered by Ranjit Singh.
26 July 1981: Decision to start ‘Dharam Yudh Morcha’ by the World Sikh Convention at Manji Sahib, Sri Amritsar. Sant Harchand Longowal was declared the Morcha dictator.
31 August 1981: Notice to the central government to accept the listed 45 demands.
7 September 1981: A grand March to Delhi in support of the 45 demands. The Haryana government under CM Harbhajan Lal resorted to a lathi charge and firing, killing four Sikhs.
8 September 1981: Lala Jagat Narain, in his paper Hind Samachar, declares S. Gurcharan Singh Tohra and other Akalis as traitors.
9 September 1981: Lala Jagat Narain of Hind Samachar was murdered near Ludhiana.
13 September 1981: Warrant issued for Sant Jarnail Singh in the case of murder of Lala Jagat Narain. The Sant was in Chando Kalan in Haryana at the time of the murder. Sant had left for Amritsar before the arrival of the police. Police went to Chando Kalan but were unable to find him; he burnt his two buses containing religious material, and the villagers were also harassed.
20 September 1981: Sant Bhindranwala surrenders to police at Chauk Mehta. Before arrest, the Sant appealed to the public to maintain peace. The police, however, fired at the gathered Sikhs. A number of Sikhs were killed in the shootout. 4 people were also killed in firing at Jalandher.
22 September 1981: Mrs. Indira Gandhi visited Chandigarh and invited Akalis for talks. Akalis demanded release of Sant Bhindranwala without any condition.
29 September 1981: An Indian Airlines plane was hijacked and taken to Lahore but returned to India since it was not allowed to land.
October 1981: Giani Zail Singh, as Home Minister of India, announces in Parliament that Bhindranwale is being released since there was no evidence that he was involved in the murder of Lala Jagat Narain.
15 October 1981: Sant Bhindranwala was released without any condition. The battle of one-upmanship between Giani Zail Singh and Darbara Singh heightened. Giani Zail Singh promoted Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala against Akalis and to upset Darbara Singh.
16 October 1981: Dialogue process started between Akalis and the center.
31 December 1981: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announces the decision of distribution of Ravi and Beas between Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. Perceived as discriminatory against and detrimental to interests of Punjab.
5 April 1982: Talks between the two broke down.
8 April 1982: Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal at the village of Kapoori, the border village between Haryana and Punjab in Sangrur District.
8 April 1982: Akalis declared ‘Nehar Roko Morcha’ at Kapoori.
19 July 1982: Bhai Amrik Singh arrested in fabricated cases. Sant Bhindranwalla started Morcha for his release.
4 August 1982: Akali Morcha (dharm Yudh) for river waters and against other discrimination against Sikhs and Punjab shifted to Amritsar. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale joins his morcha with Akalis.
11 September 1982: 34 Sikhs going to participate in agitation of Akalis were killed near Tarn Taran when their vehicle crashed into a train.
4-30 September 1982: Akalis proceeding to Delhi to protest during the ninth games were insulted by Bhajan Lal’s government.
27 January 1983: All Akali members resign from Parliament and the Assembly.
4 April 1983: Akali Dal resorted to ‘Rasta Roko.' Fired at by police, killing 36 Sikhs in Punjab
23 April 1983: DIG Jalandhar Range gunned down by terrorists inside the Golden Temple.
17 June 1983: ‘Rail Roko’ program by Akalis
6 August 1983: Bhai Amrik Singh and Bhai Thhara Singh released
29 August 1983: Akalis start the ‘Strike Work’ (kam roko) program.
5-6 October 1983: 6 Hindu bus travelers killed near Dhilwan.
6 Oct 1983: Chief Minister Darbara Singh resigns. Governor BD Pande takes over.
10 October 1983: Governor's Rule promulgated. The governor was directed by the center to control terrorism in Punjab.
Nov 1983: Four new advisors to the governor were appointed who recommended against attacking Sri Harmandir Sahib as envisaged by the centre.
28 November 1983: 4 Hindu bus travelers killed near Naushera Panuan.
15 December 1983: 40 men of Babar Khalsa owing allegiance to Fauja Singh’s wife and also to Akali Trinity moved into the serai complex, causing a threat to Sant Bhindranwale.
15 December 1983: Sensing trouble from Babbar Khalsa, Sant Bhindranwala shifted from Room no. 47 in the serai to Akal Takhat on the directions of S. Gurcharan Singh Tohra.
14 February 1984: Punjab Bandh by Akalis. Hindu Suraksha Samiti vandalized the model of Sri Darbar Sahib at Railway Station Sri Amritsar in addition to other damages.
14-21 February 1984: Hooligans and goons killed Sikhs and burnt Gurdwaras in Haryana in Panipat, Jind and many other places. In retaliation, there were bomb explosions, attacks on policemen, and random shootings of bystanders in marketplaces in Punjab.
27 February 1984: Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Parkash Singh Badal, Surjit Singh Barnala, and others tore Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. They were put in Chandigarh prison. The central government went into secret negotiations with these leaders till 12 May. External Affairs Minister PV Narsimha Rao, the Cabinet Secretary, and Principal Secretary PC Alexander were the negotiators from the government side. Elections declared.
9 March 1984: All-India Sikh Federation banned.
16 March 1984: Akalis declared boycott of elections
17 March 1984: CRPF opened unprovoked fire on Sikh pilgrims, killing three of them.
2-3 April 1984: Harbans Lal shot by militants. The angry crowd with Harbans Lal attacked Sikhs. CRPF sided with Hindus and shot down 8 Sikhs.
6 May 1984: Giani Sahib Singh, head priest of the Golden Temple, solemnizes the weddings of six close associates of Sant Bhindranwale.
10 May 1984: The ex-Jathedar of Akal Takhat, Partap Singh, was murdered.
12 May 1984: Sri Ramesh, the editor of Hind Samachar Group, was murdered. 165 Hindus and over 260 Sikhs reported killed up to May 1984. Since the emergency, a total of the dead were 410, and the injured numbered 1180. (Amritsar: Smt Indira Gandhi’s last battle, p. 147). These included the militants killed in encounters, which worked out to be 206.
13 May 1984. Tohra, Badal, Barnala, Randhir Singh Cheema, S. Balwant Singh Ramuwalia, and others were released from Chandigarh Jail.
25-31 May 1984: 100,000 Indian Army troops are mobilized and deployed throughout Punjab, surrounding all the important Gurdwaras, including the Golden Temple complex.
26 May 1984: Parleys were held between Punjab leaders S. Parkash Singh Badal, Sant Longowal, S. Gurcharan Singh Tohra, and others who negotiated with PV Narsimha Rao, Pranav Mukherjee, and Shiv Shankar of the Central Government. Some of the demands included (a) a commission for consideration through a notification and (b) the river water dispute being handed over to the Supreme Court. (c) Chandigarh be delinked from Fazilka and Abohar and handed over to Punjab. (d) A Linguistic Commission be set up to include Punjabi-speaking areas in to Punjab (e) Restrictions be removed from the All India Sikh Student Federation (AISSF). (f) All those Sikhs who have been arrested on false cases must be released immediately. (g) All India Gurdwara Act should be made. The center backtracked from the demands.
13 May 1984: Akalis declared a non-cooperation movement from 3 June 1984 onwards.
25 May 1984: 100,000 Indian Army troops are mobilized and deployed throughout Punjab, surrounding important Gurdwaras in Punjab, including the Golden Temple complex.
31 May 1984: Lt. General Sunderji launched Western Command with its three corps (II, IX, and XI) in the entire Punjab, and Chief of Staff of the Command Lt. Gen. R. S. Dayal was made the operational in charge. The Infantry Division under Major General Kuldip Singh Brar was ordered to move from Meerut to Amritsar for Operation Blue Star. Maj Gen Brar briefed about the operation on 01 June 1984 (Operation Blue Star: Brar, pp. 34-35). XI Corps was given the responsibility of securing the borders from Pakistan and any influx of militants from across the border to assist those in Sri Darbar Sahib. 15 Infantry Division, permanently stationed at Amritsar, was deployed all along the border in the Amritsar Sector. Remaining troops of the three corps spread all around Punjab. In Patiala Gurdwara, in the Sri Darbar Sahib Complex area, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Palki, and Rumalas were set on fire.
01 June 1984: Thousands of pilgrims start to gather at the Golden Temple complex to celebrate the martyrdom anniversary of Guru Arjan Dev Ji on 3rd June. Police snipers opened fire on Sant Jarnail Singh Bindranwale, sitting on the roof of the Langer Hall, but the shot is missed. CRPF opened fire from 00.40 PM to 8.15 PM (about 7-1/2 hours) on the Sri Darbar Sahib Complex, including the dome of Sri Harmandir Sahib (32 bullet marks) and Parikrama. 11 Sikhs killed and 25 injured. The killed included four members of AISSF and one member of Babbar Khalsa (Mehnga Singh). There were bullet holes in the Langer building, in the marble pavement (parikarma) surrounding the Golden Temple and on the Golden Temple building itself. It was prodding fire to know the strength of Sant Bhindrawale’s men. There was, however, no response from Sant Bhindranwale’s side. The reason could be the instructions from Akal Takhat Jathedar or fire control by Major General Shabeg Singh. Curfew was imposed from 9 PM for 32 hours. Longowal rang up Giani Zail Singh four times, but his call was not attended. The governor removed Mr. Sidhu as advisor, and Lt. Gen. RS Dayal and DGP Surinder Nath were made advisors to the governor.
2 June 1984: Governor BD Pande calls the chief secretary and home secretary of Punjab at Raj Bhavan, Chandigarh, at 6 PM and asks for the issue of an order to call the army to flush out terrorists in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. Mr Pooni signs the order. The advisors changed with two new advisors. Sant Longowal issued a statement condemning the attack. Jathedar Tohra also wrote a letter to Indira Gandhi. Giani Kirpal Singh Jathedar Akal Takhat and Giani Sahib Singh Head Granthi also issued statements. GOC-in-C Western Command Lt. Gen. Sunderji arrives at Raj Bhavan at 06.30 PM. Indira Gandhi also gave a speech on TV and radio networks as a prelude to the operation.
3 June 1984: Martyrdom Anniversary of Guru Arjan Dev ji, curfew relaxed for 7 hours. Interviews of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Major General Subegh Singh were conducted by correspondents Subhash Kirpekar and later by others with Harbir Singh Bhanwar. Though Sant Bhindranwale was not very sure that an attack was imminent, Major General Shabegh Singh was sure that an army attack was imminent and hence prepared his men accordingly. About 200 militants who probably were not ready to give up the fight escaped Bhindranwale’s camp. It may be that they were sent out by Sant Bhindranwale himself since most of them were stated to be having dubious backgrounds. The expected strength with Sant Bhandranwale was around 50-70 men inside Akal Takhat and about 300-400 men deployed in various posts/fortifications. This included the parikrama area and the houses adjoining Akal Takhat. In the Serai Complex, Bibi Amarjit Kaur had deployed about 150 Babbar Khalsa under Sukhdev Singh. They held the water tank in Guru Ram Dass's area, the road connecting SGPC, other residential and office areas of SGPC, and the Sri Darbar Sahib Complex and Baba Atal area. Hence, the militants could be between 400 and 550 and not more than that in any case. Being Guru Arjan Dev Ji’s martyrdom day, about 1000 pilgrims landed up in the Serai complex a day or two before to celebrate the day. This also included some school teachers and children. Some pilgrims were also stuck up in the parikrama area. In the Serai complex there were about 1700, who came to Amritsar to participate in the "Anaj Roko” agitation (preventing the movement of grain) as per the call given by Longowal for a Morcha. Priests and other employees in the complex were around 400. It was assessed that around 3500 to 4000 people were in the complex on the night of 3rd June 1984. A total curfew was imposed from 7.30 PM onwards. All communications, including phone lines to and from Punjab, were cut. Roadblocks prevented anyone from entering or leaving Punjab, and all journalists were expelled from Punjab. Pilgrims were trapped inside the temple complex. Milk vendors from the villages who supplied milk to the city of Amritsar were shot dead for violating the curfew orders.
4 June 1984: Elimination process of militants deployed at 2 Ramgarhia Bungas, the water tank in Ram Das Serai, the Langar building, and Brahm Boota Akhara started by the army under Maj. Gen. Brar. The army started firing on the temple complex. There was a gun battle lasting 5 hours. Using machine guns and mortars, the army fired at militant positions atop the two 18th-century towers called Ramgarhia Bungas and the water tank behind Teja Singh Samundri Hall as well as surrounding buildings. At least 100 were killed on both sides. Heavy firing on to the Darbar Sahib Complex was reported from 4.40 AM onwards. As per Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the firing was much more intense than in the 1965 war. Not a single body could move out. No warning was ever heard in the Serai or Darbar Sahib Complex as per Tohra, who added that "if there would have been any warning, we would have saved 600 men of the group that had come for offering peaceful arrest for the agitation.”
5 June 1984: At 7:00 p.m., the invasion of the Golden Temple began with tanks of the 16th Cavalry Regiment of the Indian Army moving to close on to the Golden Temple complex. According to Major General Brar, he briefed troops not to use their guns against the Golden Temple or the Akal Takht. Tanks entered Serai complex at 10 AM and started firing at the complex. Artillery (3.7” mortars) is used to blast off the tops of the Ramgaria Bungas and the water tank. Scores of buildings in and around the temple complex started blazing. One artillery shell landed more than 5 km away in the crowded city. In the narrow alley behind the Akal Takht, paramilitary commandos tried to get into the temple. Meanwhile, tanks moved into the square in front of the clock tower entrance. Some troops made to the roof but were turned back due to the heavy gunfire. At 10:30 pm commandos from the 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, tried to run down the steps under the clock tower onto the marble parikrama around the sacred pool. They faced heavy gunfire, suffering casualties, and were forced to retreat. A second wave of commandos managed to neutralize the machine gun posts on either side of the steps or got down to the parikrama. The Akal Takht was found to be heavily fortified with sandbags and bricked gun emplacements in its windows and arches. From here and the surrounding buildings, the militants were able to fire at any commando who could make his way to the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Harmandar Sahib. Two companies of the 7th Garhwal Rifles entered the temple complex from the western gate entrance. After a gun battle they were able to establish a position on the roof of the Temple Library. They are reinforced by two companies of the 15th Kumaon. Repeated unsuccessful attempts were made to storm Akal Takht.
After midnight tanks were used to break down the steps leading to the parikrama from the hostel side, and an 8-wheeled Polish-built armoured personnel carrier made its way towards the Akal Takht. It was destroyed by a Chinese-made rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Six or more Vijayanta tanks entered the temple complex, crushing the delicate marble inlays of the parikrama and ploughing their way towards the Akal Takht. Orders arrive, and the tanks start firing their large 105mm cannons equipped with high-explosive squash-head shells into the Akal Takht. These shells were designed for hard targets like armour and fortifications. When the shells hit a target, their heads spread or squash on the hard surface. Their fuses were arranged to allow a short delay between the impact and the shells igniting so that a shock wave passes through the target and a heavy slab of armour or masonry is forced away from the inside of the target armour or fortification. The effect on the Akal Takht was devastating. Over 80 shells were pumped into the Takhat building, which pierced through the Darshani Deodhi first and then entered Akal Takhat. The entire front of the Darshani Deodi and the Takht are destroyed, and fires break out in many of the different rooms, blackening the marble walls and wrecking the delicate decorations dating back to the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Marble inlays, plaster and mirror work, filigree partitions, and priceless old wall paintings were all destroyed. The gold dome of the Akal Takht was also badly damaged by artillery fire. At one stage a 3.7-inch howitzer gun is mounted on the roof of a building behind the shrine and fired a number of times at the beautiful dome. At the other end of the temple complex, on the easternmost side a battalion of the Kumaon Regiment attacked the hostel complex where many of the innocent pilgrims as well as the temple administration staff were trying to protect themselves. There was no water because the water tower had been destroyed. Over and above June month was the hottest, and children cried and the old gasped for water. Some statements of the eyewitnesses are given below:
They cut our electricity and water supplies. It was very hot in the rooms. There was no water. We had only two plastic buckets of water. Sant Longowal had to place two people as guards over the buckets. Many people would squeeze their undershirts to drink their sweat to quench their thirst. " (Bhan Singh, Secretary of S.G.P.C.)
Around 1:00 am the army entered the hostel and administrative buildings and ordered everyone out and made them sit in the courtyard of the Guru Ram Das Hostel. There were about 250 people who came out. At 2 a.m. on June 6, the army people came to the Rest House. They tore off all my clothes and stripped me naked. My kirpan was snatched, and my headgear (patka) was untied to tie up my hands behind my back. They caught me by my hair and took me along with five others—who were all pilgrims—to the ruins of the water tank; there we were told, "Don't move or you'll be shot." They kept hitting us with the rifle butts. Then a Major came and ordered a soldier, 'Shoot them.' He then shouted at us, "You must be Bhindranwale's chelas? You want Khalistan?” I said "I am here to do my duty. I have nothing to do with all this." Six of us were in a line facing the major when a Pahari soldier started shooting from one end, killing four of us (with 3 bullets each). As my turn was coming, suddenly a Sikh officer turned up and ordered, "Stop shooting." Thus I was saved. (Prithipal Singh, Sevadar, Akal Rest House). Suddenly there was a big explosion. All hell broke loose. It was pitch dark. People started running back into the verandah and the rooms. Abhinashi Singh and I were sitting next to Gurcharan Singh, the former Secretary of the Akali Dal whom Bhindranwale accused of murdering Sodhi. Gurcharan was shot as he tried to run inside. We realized that soldiers were shooting at us. They thought someone from among the crowd had exploded the grenade. But it was probably thrown by extremists on the water tank overlooking the Guru Ram Das Serai (hostel). We ran to Tohra's room and told Longowal what was happening. Longowal came out and shouted at the Major. He said, 'Don't shoot these people. They are not extremists. They are employees of the S.G.P.C.' The Major then ordered his men to stop shooting. Later in the morning we counted at least seventy dead bodies in the compound. There were women and children too." (Bhan Singh) Among the dead were 35 women and 5 children. The survivors were made to sit in the courtyard of the Guru Ram Das Hostel until curfew was lifted the next evening. They were not given any food, water or medical aid. People drank whatever water was in blood-mixed puddles in the courtyard from the blown up water tank. When people begged for water, some soldiers told them to drink the mixture of blood and urine on the ground. (Karnail Kaur, mother of 3 young children trapped in Ram Dass Serai). Many of the young men in the group of innocent unarmed civilians were then shot by the soldiers. I saw about 35 or 36 Sikhs lined up with their hands raised above their heads. And the major was about to order them to be shot. When I asked him for medical help, he got into a rage, tore my turban off my head, and ordered his men to shoot me. I turned back and fled, jumping over the bodies of the dead and injured, and saving my life crawling along the walls. I got to the room where Tohra and Sant Longowal were sitting and told them what I had seen. Sardar Karnail Singh Nag, who had followed me, also narrated what he had seen, as well as the killing of 35 to 36 young Sikhs by cannon fire. All of these young men were villagers. (Bhan Singh)
Early on the sixth morning the army came into the Guru Ram Das Serai and ordered all those in the rooms to come out. We were taken into the courtyard. The men were separated from the women. We were also divided into old and young women and I was separated from the children, but I managed to get back to the old women. When we were sitting there, the army released 150 people from the basement. They were asked why they had not come out earlier. They said the door had been locked from the outside. They were asked to hold up their hands and then they were shot after 15 minutes. Other young men were told to untie their turbans. They were used to tie their hands behind their backs. The army hit them on the head with the butts of their rifles." (Ranbir Kaur, School Teacher) The young men and some other pilgrims were staying in Room Number 61. The army searched all the rooms of the Serai. Nothing objectionable was found from their room. Nor did the army find anything objectionable on their person. The army locked up 60 pilgrims in that room and shut not only the door but the window also. Electric supply was disconnected. The night between June 5th and June 6th was extremely hot. The locked-in young men felt very thirsty after some time and loudly knocked on the door from inside to ask the army men on duty for water. They got abuses in return, but no water. The door was not opened. Feeling suffocated and extremely thirsty, the men inside began to faint and otherwise suffer untold misery. The door of the room was opened at 8 am on June 6th. By this time 55 out of the 60 had died. The remaining 5 were also semi-dead." (Sujjan Singh Margindpuri)
By morning light, there is only sporadic sniper fire from the rubble of the Akal Takht. By late afternoon the army was firmly in control of the Temple complex and curfew was lifted for two hours to allow people who were still in hiding to come out. I went to the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) on 5th June around 7:30 in the evening because I had to ensure that religious ceremonies were performed. The moment I stepped on to the parikrama I stumbled across a body. Bullets were flying and I had to take shelter behind each and every pillar to reach the Darshani Deorhi. Another body was lying there. I ran a few yards and reached the Akal Takht. Night prayers start at Harmandir Sahib five minutes after they start at the Akal Takht. I wanted to find out if the path (recitation) had started there. I had a glimpse of Bhindranwale. We did not speak to each other. Around 7:45 I came out of the Akal Takht and ran into the Darshani Deorhi. I ran towards Harmandir Sahib, unmindful of the bullets flying past my ears. I began night prayers. Soon a colleague of mine, Giani Mohan Singh, joined me. Seeing the intensity of the fire we decided to close all the doors, barring the front door. Soon we completed all religious rites. We then took the Guru Granth Sahib to the top room to prevent any damage to the holy book. The Head Priest, Giani Sahib Singh, had given clear instructions that the Guru Granth Sahib under no circumstances was to be taken to the Akal Takht if the conditions were not right. (Giani Puran Singh)
Looking through the window-pane from the first floor of the Harmandir Sahib, I saw a tank standing on the parikarma with its lights on. I thought for a moment that it was the fire brigade which had come to collect water from the sarovar (holy pool) to put out the fire which was raging in almost every room. A few minutes later my belief was shattered when I saw the vehicle emitting fire instead of putting it out. By 10:30 or so around 13 tanks had collected on the parikarma. They had come after crushing the staircase from the eastern wing where Guru Ram Das Serai, the Langer and the Teja Singh Samundari Hall are situated. One after another the cannon fire lit the sky. When the first shell hit the bottom of the Darshani Deorhi, creating a hole in it, I saw the room with the historic chandni (canopy) presented by Maharaja Ranjit Singh catching fire. One after another, the big bombs hit the Darshani Deorhi in quick succession. What was once a lovely building was now on fire. The Toshakhana (Treasury) was also on fire. Occasionally a bullet would hit the Harmandir Sahib. We were 27 people inside, mostly ragis (singers) and sevadars (temple servants).
On the fifth night, the night of the real assault, mortars started throwing up plaster. My wife and I and my two daughters decided to go down from our flat on the first floor to the office, which is on the ground floor. At this point I thought of surrendering but I was told by a Bhindranwale man, 'One more step outside the complex and you are a dead man'. Faced with this threat to my entire family plus the insecurity of the office room, I decided to move down to a small basement where there was a fridge. An exhaust fan outlet in the basement proved a life saver. I could hear soldiers speaking outside and different instructions from their commanders. Next to the basement was another cubicle facing the Temple where a sewadar used to sleep. I heard the army drag out this man. He was shot. Since extremists had been using all possible openings as pill boxes and grenade launchers the soldiers decided to lob grenades into all such openings, including my fan outlet. The minute I heard the order we all moved under a staircase. Minutes later two grenades came in. The splinters took three inches away from most of the walls. But luckily we escaped. We spent the night under the staircase. Eventually at about 11 am on the 6th my wife noticed an officer standing outside. She called out to him to attract his attention and requested him to rescue us. She told him that she had two young daughters. The officer behaved decently and said, 'Don't worry. I too have two daughters. Nothing will happen to you. Stay put.' He organized chapattis, pickles and drinking water. He eventually let us out when curfew lifted. We had to step over dead bodies strewn everywhere. We were taken to the square in front of the main clock tower entrance. The minute the soldiers saw me, a male member of the group, they positioned their rifles on their shoulders with the barrels pointing at me. I think they were about to shoot me when a Brigadier who recognized me, intervened. We were then led by the soldiers across the parikrama to the library side. A lieutenant accompanied us. Upon reaching the other side he asked me to stand against the wall and lined up a firing squad. He asked me to say my prayers. I requested to say good-bye to my wife and the two daughters. At this point the Brigadier showed up again and shouted at the young officer, 'What the hell are you doing?' The officer said, 'Sir, I misunderstood your order. I thought this man was to be shot.' Now we were made to sit on the ground. My hands were tied behind my back. We were about 70 in that lot. All of us were told to keep our heads down. A slight movement of the head resulted in a sharp rifle butt. We spent the whole night sitting there. Outside the Temple complex the army troops were on a rampage, killing and looting surrounding houses of Sikhs. (Narinderjit Singh Nada, Temple Public Relations Officer).
6th June: After midnight tanks are used to break down the steps leading to the parkarma from the hostel side and an 8-wheeled Polish-built armoured personnel carrier makes it is way towards the Akal Takht. It is destroyed by a Chinese-made rocket propelled grenade launcher. Six or more Vijayanta tanks enter the temple complex crushing the delicate marble inlays of the parkarma and plow their way towards the Akal Takht. Orders arrive and the tanks start firing their large 105mm cannons equipped with high explosive squash-head shells into the Akal Takht. These shells are designed for hard targets like armour and fortifications. When the shells his a target, their heads spread or squash on the hard surface. Their fuses are arranged to allow a short delay between the impact and the shells igniting, so that a shock-wave passes through the target and a heavy slab of armour or masonry is forced away from the inside of the target armour or fortification. The effect on the Akal Takht, the most sacred of the five Takhts, is devastating. Over 80 shells are pumped into the sacred Gurdwara. The entire front of the Takht is destroyed and fires break out in many of the different rooms blackening the marble walls and wrecking the delicate decorations dating back to the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Marble inlays, plaster and mirror work, filigree partitions and priceless old wall paintings are all destroyed. The gold dome of the Akal Takht is also badly damaged by artillery fire. At one stage a 3.7 inch Howitzer gun is mounted on the roof of a building behind the shrine and fired a number of times at the beautiful dome. At the other end of the Temple complex on the easternmost side a battalion of the Kumaon Regiment were invading the hostel complex where many of the innocent pilgrims were in hiding as well as the temple administration staff. There was no water because the water tower had been destroyed and it was very hot. In the early hours of the morning of 6th June we took the holy book down and performed the religious rites that are performed every day, like maharaj da prakash karna (unfolding the holy book) and reciting hymns from the scriptures. The two side-doors were closed and the front and back doors were open. Bullets kept hitting the wall both inside and outside, ripping off the gold surface at various places. Soon after we finished reciting prayers one of our colleagues, Ragi Avtar Singh was hit between 10-11 AM. We pulled him into a corner. Another bullet came and hit the holy Granth Sahib. We have preserved this book. (Gurdial Singh, June 1984 de akhin dithe halat, Gurmat Parkash, reproduced in Sikh Phulwari, June 2018
In the meanwhile the pounding of the Akal Takht was continuing. There was no let-up in the fire in other places either. We were thirsty and desperate for water. We crawled to the holy pool to get water for ourselves and for the wounded colleague.
Around 5pm they announced on loudspeakers that those hiding in the Harmandir Sahib should come out and that they would not be shot dead. While myself and Giani Mohan Singh remained inside, others walked out with the arms above their heads."
Over 300 bullet holes were counted in the Golden Temple itself.
With the lifting of the curfew innocent Sikhs thought that by coming out from hiding they would now be safe. Sadly this was not the case.
"On the way back to the hotel (afternoon of June 6th) I witnessed a scene at the Kotwali which is blood curdling. This is where some soldiers were kicking some of the 11 suspected terrorists as they knelt on their bare knees and crawled on the hot road surface." (Subhash Kirpekar, Journalist)
"The people were taken out of their houses. Men's hands were tied with their turbans. Women's necks were sought to be asphyxiated with their plaits. Then they were shot in the chests. No quarter was shown to women, aged or children; in the eyes of the troops every Sikh was a terrorist. Those who survived died of thirst. Their houses were ransacked, and then put on fire. The area surrounding Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) was full of debris. What happened is beyond description of sight, hearing or words." (Giani Chet Singh)
As night fell the Army troops were given the order to storm the remains of the Akal Takht and shoot on site anyone they found inside. The troops encounter little resistance and find dead bodies and the smell of death everywhere.
7 June 1984: In the early hours of the morning the troops discover the bodies of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his closest followers in the basement of the Akal Takht. "The Army officers in-charge ordered me to go home and I remained there until the morning of June 6 when I was summoned early in the morning. When I reached the kotwali [police station] near the temple, I saw the dead bodies of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Gen. Shabeg Singh, Thiara Singh and Amrik Singh lying there...I was asked to identify the bodies because I was familiar with all the dead men having often interacted with them as part of my duties as a police officer. The Army then requested me to arrange the cremations. We performed these, according to Sikh rites, at the nearby Gurudwara Shaheedan...A large majority of those who died inside the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar were common devotees who had come to the shrine on June 3 on the occasion of the fifth Guru’s Martyrdom Day... Apart from Bhindranwale’s armed followers, I counted a little over 800 dead bodies inside the temple complex. My men and I were also tasked with clearing and cremating these bodies. Army and municipal officials helped transport them to the local cremation ground. While many innocents were killed in the crossfire between the army and the militants, it is also true that the soldiers deliberately gunned down several devotees. You see they actually believed that anyone inside the temple was the ‘enemy.’ The soldiers had no notion of how they should tackle an unprecedented situation like the one that had developed inside the Golden Temple." (Apar Singh Bajwa, SP of Punjab Police)
The day was spent in clean-up operations flushing out any remaining snipers and collecting the dead bodies. Soldiers were openly walking about the temple in their shoes, drinking alcohol as well as smoking. Blood and bodies were strewn all over the broken marble of the parikarma, with putrefying corpses floating in the sacred pool of nectar and the smell of death everywhere. The Darshani Deori, the entrance gate of the Golden Temple, which houses many priceless treasures, was destroyed and looted. Although fighting had now died down, the central library complex was mysteriously burned down. Many priceless manuscripts, some in the Guru's own handwriting, were lost forever. A situation that could have been resolved without a shot being fired was allowed to deteriorate to the point where the sacred sanctity of a place of worship was desecrated in the most brutal way with death and destruction. In addition to the followers of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, thousands of innocent pilgrims who had gathered to celebrate a religious festival and those who came to surrender peacefully in support of the agitation also lost their lives in the attack.
The Akal Takht, the symbolic seat of supreme Sikh temporal authority, was reduced to rubble. Gurdwara Darbar Sahib was damaged with over 300 bullets. The Sikh Reference Library with precious handwritten manuscripts of the Gurus was burned to the ground. A portion of the temple treasury Toshakhana with priceless historical artifacts of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was also burned (Bhan Singh, Secretary of S.G.P.C.) "They cut our electricity and water supplies. It was very hot in the rooms. There was no water. We had only two plastic buckets of water. Longowal had to place two people as guards over the buckets. Many people would squeeze their undershirts to drink their sweat to quench their thirst."
Around 1:00 am the army entered the hostel and administrative buildings and ordered everyone out and made them sit in the courtyard of the Guru Ram Das Hostel. There were about 250 people who came out. Prithipal Singh (Sevadar, Akal Rest House)
"At 2 a.m. on June 6, the army people came to the rest house. They tore off all my clothes and stripped me naked; my kirpan was snatched, and my headgear (patta) was untied to tie up my hands behind my back. They caught me by my hair and took me along with five others—who were all pilgrims—to the ruins of the water tank. There we were told, "Don't move or you'll be shot." They kept hitting us with the rifle butts. Then a Major came and ordered a soldier to shoot them, then shouted at us, "You must be Bhindranwale's chelas?" You want Khalistan? I said, "I am here to do my duty. I have nothing to do with all this." "Six of us were in a line facing the Major, when a Pahari soldier started shooting from one end, killing four of us (with 3 bullets each). As my turn was coming, suddenly a Sikh officer turned up and ordered, "Stop shooting." Thus I was saved. (Bhan Singh)
"Suddenly there was a big explosion. All hell broke loose. It was pitch dark. People started running back into the verandah and the rooms. Abhinashi Singh and I were sitting next to Gurcharan Singh, the former Secretary of the Akali Dal whom Bhindranwale accused of murdering Sodhi. Gurcharan was shot as he tried to run inside. We realized that soldiers were shooting at us. They thought someone from among the crowd had exploded the grenade. But it was probably thrown by extremists on the water tank overlooking the Guru Ram Das Serai (hostel). We ran to Tohra's room and told Longowal what was happening. Longowal came out and shouted at the Major. He said, 'Don't shoot these people. They are not extremists. They are employees of the S.G.P.C.' The Major then ordered his men to stop shooting. Later in the morning we counted at least seventy dead bodies in the compound. There were women and children too."
Among the dead were 35 women and 5 children. The survivors were made to sit in the courtyard of the Guru Ram Das Hostel until curfew was lifted the next evening. They were not given any food, water, or medical aid. People drank whatever water was in puddles in the courtyard from the blown up water tank (Karnail Kaur, mother of 3 young children)"When people begged for water, some soldiers told them to drink the mixture of blood and urine on the ground." Many of the young men in the group of innocent unarmed civilians were then shot by the soldiers. (Bhan Singh)
"I saw about 35 or 36 Sikhs lined up with their hands raised above their heads. And the major was about to order them to be shot. When I asked him for medical help, he got into a rage, tore my turban off my head, and ordered his men to shoot me. I turned back and fled, jumping over the bodies of the dead and injured, and saved my life crawling along the walls. I got to the room where Tohra and Sant Longowal were sitting and told them what I had seen. Sardar Karnail Singh Nag, who had followed me, also narrated what he had seen, as well as the killing of 35 to 36 young Sikhs by cannon fire. All of these young men were villagers. (Ranbir Kaur, School Teacher)
"Early on the sixth morning the army came into the Guru Ram Das Serai and ordered all of those in the rooms to come out. We were taken into the courtyard. The men were separated from the women. We were also divided into old and young women and I was separated from the children, but I managed to get back to the old women. When we were sitting there the army released 150 people from the basement. They were asked why they had not come out earlier. They said the door had been locked from the outside. They were asked to hold up their hands and then they were shot after 15 minutes. Other young men were told to untie their turbans. They were used to tie their hands behind their backs. The army hit them on the head with the butts of their rifles." (Sujjan Singh Margindpuri)
"The young men and some other pilgrims were staying in Room Number 61. The army searched all the rooms of the Serai. Nothing objectionable was found from their room. Nor did the army find anything objectionable on their persons. The army locked up 60 pilgrims in that room and shut not only the door but the window also. Electric supply was disconnected. The night between June 5th and June 6th was extremely hot. The locked-in young men felt very thirsty after some time, and loudly knocked on the door from inside to ask the army men on duty for water. They got abuses in return, but no water. The door was not opened. Feeling suffocated and extremely thirsty, the men inside began to faint and otherwise suffer untold misery. The door of the room was opened at 8 am on June 6th. By this time 55 out of the 60 had died. The remaining 5 were also semi-dead."
By morning light, there is only sporadic sniper fire from the rubble of the Akal Takht. By late afternoon the army was firmly in control of the Temple complex and curfew was lifted for two hours to allow people who were still in hiding to come out.
(Giani Puran Singh)
"I went to the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) on 5th June around 7:30 in the evening because I had to ensure that religious ceremonies were performed. The moment I stepped on to the parkarma I stumbled across a body. Bullets were flying and I had to take shelter behind each and every pillar to reach the Darshani Deorhi. Another body was lying there. I ran a few yards and reached the Akal Takht. Night prayers start at Harmandir Sahib five minutes after they start at the Akal Takht. I wanted to find out if the path (recitation) had started there. I had a glimpse of Bhindranwale. We did not speak to each other. Around 7:45 I came out of the Akal Takht and ran into the Darshani Deorhi. I ran towards Harmandir Sahib, unmindful of the bullets flying past my ears. I began night prayers. Soon a colleague of mine, Giani Mohan Singh, joined me. Seeing the intensity of the fire we decided to close all the doors, barring the front door. Soon we completed all religious rites. We then took the Guru Granth Sahib to the top room to prevent any damage to the holy book. The Head Priest, Giani Sahib Singh, had given clear instructions that under no circumstances was the Guru Granth Sahib to be taken to the Akal Takht if the conditions were not right.
Looking through the window-pane from the first floor of the Harmandir Sahib, I saw a tank standing on the parkarma with its lights on. I thought for a moment that it was the fire brigade come to collect water from the srowar (holy pool) to put out the fire which was raging in almost every room. A few minutes later my belief was shattered when I saw the vehicle emitting fire instead of putting it out. By 10:30 or so around 13 tanks had collected on the parkarma. They had come after crushing the staircase from the eastern wing where Guru Ram Das Serai, the Langer and the Teja Singh Samundari Hall are situated. One after another the cannon fire lit the sky. When the first shell hit the bottom of the Darshani Deorhi, creating a hole in it, I saw the room with the historic chandni (canopy) presented by Maharaja Ranjit Singh catching fire. One after another the big bombs hit the Darshani Deorhi in quick succession, and what was once a lovely building was now on fire. The Toshakhana (Treasury) was also on fire. Occasionally a bullet would hit the Harmandir Sahib. We were 27 people inside, mostly ragis (singers) and sevadars (temple servants).
In the early hours of the morning of 6th June, we took the holy book down and performed the religious rites that are performed every day, like maharaj da prakash karna (unfolding the holy book) and reciting hymns from the scriptures. The two side doors were closed, and the front and back doors were open. Bullets kept hitting the wall both inside and outside, ripping off the gold surface at various places. Soon after we finished reciting prayers, one of our colleagues, Ragi Avtar Singh, was hit. We pulled him into a corner. Another bullet came and hit the holy Granth Sahib. We have preserved this book.
In the meantime, the pounding of the Akal Takht was continuing. There was no let-up in the fire in other places either. We were thirsty and desperate for water. We crawled to the holy pool to get water for ourselves and for the wounded colleague.
Around 5pm they announced on loudspeakers that those hiding in the Harmandir Sahib should come out and that they would not be shot dead. While Giani Mohan Singh and I remained inside, others walked out with arms above their heads. "Over 300 bullet holes were counted in the Golden Temple itself.With the lifting of the curfew innocent Sikhs thought that by coming out from hiding they would now be safe. Sadly, this was not the case. (Narinderjit Singh Nada, Temple Public Relations Officer)
"On the fifth night, the night of the real assault, mortars started throwing up plaster. My wife and I and my two daughters decided to go down from our flat on the first floor to the office, which is on the ground floor. At this point I thought of surrendering but I was told by a Bhindranwale man, 'One more step outside the complex and you are a dead man. Faced with this threat to my entire family plus the insecurity of the office room, I decided to move down to a small basement where there was a fridge. An exhaust fan outlet in the basement proved a lifesaver. I could hear soldiers speaking outside and different instructions from their commanders. Next to the basement was another cubicle facing the temple, where a sewadar used to sleep. I heard the army drag out this man. He was shot. Since extremists had been using all possible openings as pillboxes and grenade launchers, the soldiers decided to lob grenades into all such openings, including my fan outlet. The minute I heard the order, we all moved under a staircase. Minutes later two grenades came in. The splinters took three inches away from most of the walls. But luckily we escaped. We spent the night under the staircase.
Eventually, at about 11 am on the 6th, my wife noticed an officer standing outside. She called out to him to attract his attention and requested him to rescue us. She told him that she had two young daughters. The officer behaved decently and said, 'Don't worry; I too have two daughters. ' Nothing will happen to you. Stay put.' He organized chapattis, pickles, and drinking water. He eventually let us out when curfew lifted. We had to step over dead bodies strewn everywhere. We were taken to the square in front of the main clock tower entrance. The minute the soldiers saw me, a male member of the group, they positioned their rifles on their shoulders with the barrels pointing at me. I think they were about to shoot me when a brigadier who recognized me intervened. We were then led by soldiers across the parikrama to the library side. A lieutenant accompanied us. Upon reaching the other side, he asked me to stand against the wall and lined up a firing squad. He asked me to say my prayers. I requested to say goodbye to my wife and the two daughters. At this point the brigadier showed up again and shouted at the young officer, 'What the hell are you doing!' The officer said, 'Sir, I misunderstood your order.' I thought this man was to be shot. Now we were made to sit on the ground. My hands were tied behind my back. We were about 70 in that lot. All of us were told to keep our heads down. A slight movement of the head resulted in a sharp rifle butt. We spent the whole night sitting there. Outside the temple complex, the army troops were on a rampage, killing and looting surrounding houses of Sikhs. (Subhash Kirpekar, Journalist)
"On the way back to the hotel (afternoon of June 6th), I witnessed a scene at the Kotwali that is blood-curdling. This is where some soldiers were kicking some of the 11 suspected terrorists as they knelt on their bare knees and crawled on the hot road surface." (Giani Chet Singh)
"The people were taken out of their houses. Men's hands were tied with their turbans. Women's necks were sought to be asphyxiated with their plaits. Then they were shot in the chests. No quarter was shown to women, the aged, or children; in the eyes of the troops, every Sikh was a terrorist. Those who survived died of thirst. Their houses were ransacked and then put on fire. The area surrounding Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) was full of debris. What happened is beyond description of sight, hearing, or words."
As night fell, the army troops were given the order to storm the remains of the Akal Takht and shoot on sight anyone they found inside. The troops encounter little resistance and find dead bodies and the smell of death everywhere.
Thursday June 7th In the early hours of the morning the troops discover the bodies of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his closest followers in the basement of the Akal Takht. (Apar Singh Bajwa, SP of Punjab Police)
"The army officers in charge ordered me to go home, and I remained there until the morning of June 6, when I was summoned early in the morning. When I reached the kotwali [police station] near the temple, I saw the dead bodies of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Gen. Shabeg Singh, Thiara Singh, and Amrik Singh lying there...I was asked to identify the bodies because I was familiar with all the dead men, having often interacted with them as part of my duties as a police officer. The Army then requested me to arrange the cremations. We performed these, according to Sikh rites, at the nearby Gurudwara Shaheedan... A large majority of those who died inside the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar were common devotees who had come to the shrine on June 3 on the occasion of the fifth Guru’s Martyrdom Day... Apart from Bhindranwale’s armed followers, I counted a little over 800 dead bodies inside the temple complex. My men and I were also tasked with clearing and cremating these bodies. Army and municipal officials helped transport them to the local cremation ground. While many innocents were killed in the crossfire between the army and the militants, it is also true that the soldiers deliberately gunned down several devotees. You see they actually believed that anyone inside the temple was the ‘enemy.’ The soldiers had no notion of how they should tackle an unprecedented situation like the one that had developed inside the Golden Temple."
The day was spent in cleanup operations flushing out any remaining snipers and collecting the dead bodies. Soldiers were openly walking about the temple in their shoes, drinking alcohol as well as smoking. Blood and bodies were strewn all over the broken marble of the park area. With putrefying corpses floating in the sacred pool of nectar and the smell of death everywhere. The Darshani Deori, the entrance gate of the Golden Temple, which houses many priceless treasures, was destroyed and looted. Although fighting had now died down, the central library complex was mysteriously burned down. Many priceless manuscripts, some in the Guru's own handwriting, were lost forever.
Aftermath: The number of people who lost their lives will never be known. The Army refused to let the Red Cross enter the complex and cremated the dead before the bodies could be identified or claimed by their families. The Amritsar municipal sweepers refused to clear the dead bodies away but were eventually persuaded by offers of rum and being allowed to strip the bodies of all valuables. They piled the dead into garbage trucks and unceremoniously cremated them. Family members were not allowed by the army to claim the remains or perform any traditional funeral rites. It is clear that thousands lost their lives in the temple complex.
Details of Civilians Dead, injured and imprisoned
Indian Government white paper category “civilian/terrorist”: 493
AP, Reuter and New York Times (June 11, 1984) 1,000
Author Mark Tully's (Amritsar, Mrs. Gandhi's last battle) 2,093
Amritsar crematorium worker 3,300
Author Chand Joshi (Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality) 5,000
Eyewitnesses: 8,000
Militants killed ”
Government White Paper 200, 35 bodies in Akal Takht 200: A.I.S.S.F. Member—100 fighters June 5th, 100
S.S. Bhagowalia, V.P. Association for Democratic Rights 140-150
Indian Government White Paper: Own troops killed 83; own troops wounded 249; civilians/terrorists killed 493; terrorists and others injured 86; civilians/terrorists apprehended 1,592.
Total number of troops taking part in the attack is estimated at around 1,000 (Mark Tulley).
Child Prisoners: 22 children between the ages of 2 and 16 years old were detained among the 1,592 terrorists apprehended by the army according to the government White Paper and on the “most dangerous terrorists list." They languished in jail suffering torture for over a year until social worker Kamala Devi petitioned the Supreme Court for their release from Ludihana jail.
Prisoner Mehrban Singh, Age 12: “We were repeatedly asked if we were Bhindranwale’s men. They hit us at Ludhiana jail, jabbing fingers into our necks, wanting us to confess that we had been filling magazines with bullets for Bhindranwale’s men.”
Prisoner Shamsher Singh, Age 11: “We were given very dirty food in the army camp. The food was better in the jail. We were regularly beaten in jail. We were told we were Bhindranwale’s people, and they wanted to know about Bhindranwale’s friends. They asked us where Bhindranwale kept his arms.”
Continuing Violence
Parallel to Operation Blue Star, another military operation called Operation Woodrose took place. Across Punjab, the Indian Army attacked 42 to 74 Gurdwaras, resulting in high casualties at Moga, Mukatsar, Faridkot, Patiala, Ropar, and Chowk Mehta. The exact number of Sikhs killed is not known, but 257 people were shot and killed during the storming of just a single Gurdwara in the operation, Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib in Patiala.
On October 31, 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot and killed by two bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, as revenge for Operation Blue Star. Over the next four days, as many as 3100 Sikhs were killed in retaliatory attacks, mainly in Delhi by Hindu mobs said to be organized and coordinated by Indian government officials. As many as 50,000 Sikhs were left homeless as their houses were burned to the ground.
In the 10 years following 1984, over 70,000 people were detained under emergency terrorism legislation (TADA), yet only 1 percent of them were eventually convicted of a crime. (Case of Sukhwinder Singh, 23 years old)
Report for the Committee on Disappearances in Punjab: On 13 December 1991, Sukhwinder Singh, accompanied by Lakhwinder Singh, went to Munda Pind village on a tractor trolley to do some shopping. While returning, they were apprehended by the police of Munda Pind police post and handed over to Goindwal Sahib police. SHO Tegh Bahadur of Goindwal Sahib Police Station and head constable Rachhpal Singh personally supervised Sukhwinder’s interrogation under torture during the course of his illegal detention for five days. The family members regularly visited him in the police station and served him food. Gian Singh met his son at Goindwal police station for the last time on 16 December 1991. Gian Singh, along with several other village elders, had been talking to SHO Tegh Bahadur Singh to get Sukhwinder released from his custody. The SHO demanded a bribe of Rs 200,000 for Sukhwinder’s release. Gian Singh, a small farmer, was unable to raise such a large amount and beseeched the SHO to release his son for Rs. 50,000, but the SHO turned down the offer. Gian Singh was still struggling to raise the amount demanded by the SHO for his son’s release when, on 19 December 1991, several Punjabi newspapers reported the killing of Sukhwinder Singh and another unidentified militant in a supposed armed encounter with the police force. The cremation was carried out without the family’s knowledge.
Rebuilding: Kar Seva is the ceremonial cleaning of the sacred pool that is normally undertaken every 50 years. A special Kar Seva was undertaken in 1985 to replace some of the damage. Tens of thousands of Sikhs participated, and the sacred pool of nectar was completely drained and cleaned. The Akal Takht has been entirely rebuilt. The marble of the parikarma has been replaced in sections with new marble. Repair work on Harmandir Sahib included regilding the temple dome and walls with new gold. The Ramgharia Bungas have been repaired and Teja Singh Samundri Hall has been left, pockmarked with bullet holes as a reminder of the tragedy
Reasons for the fiasco
- Continuous rift at political level between Giani Zail Singh (as Home Minister and President of India) and Darbara Singh (Chief Minister of Punjab)
- Development of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala by Giani Zail Singh and helping him escape from arrest. As a result there was never any FIR against the Sant.
- Decision to give Ravi and Beas waters to Haryana and Rajasthan, which was totally illogical.
- Direct control by the center bypassing the state officials, occasionally causing lack of coordination and spiritual amalgamation in the operation.
- Advisors to the governor lacked political approach and had poor communication with state officials, causing a rift at the top level.
- No briefing was taken from the intelligence wing of the state police on eve of the operation. The IG (CID) HS Randhawa had the required information about the Darbar Sahib complex and the terrorists inside; however, this was not obtained.
- Lack of time for preparation of the 9th Infantry Division (informed only 2 days before the move to Amritsar). They had only a sand model discussion and some rehearsals at Chakrata before the moving.
- Discontent among 15 Infantry Divisions, especially at the GOC level for having given operation to 9 Infantry Divisions instead of the holding division.

A Comparative Study of Indian Army in Bangladesh Operations and Operation Blue Star

Indian and Pakistan Armies in Bangladesh Operations in 1971

General Area and Army Deployments of Bangladesh Operation

General Area of Blue Star Operations at Darbar Sahib

Table 1: Comparison: Indian Army Operations: Bangladesh and Blue Star

Troops of Indian Army	Opposition
Bangla Desh	Blue Star	Bangladesh	Darbar Sahib
Command-1 Eastern	Command-1 Western	Command	-
Corps-3: II, IV, XXXIII,	Corps -3: II, IX, XI	-	-
Divsions-101 com Zone,4,6,9,20,8,23,57	Divisions 4,7,9,14,15,23	Divisions 9, 14,16, 39	About 400 fighters
Additional- Mukti Bahini	Additional-BSF, CRPF, SFF, PP	50 Para Bde	-
Total: Approx 3 Lakh	Approx 2.5 Lakh	Approx 1 Lakh	Approx 400

Analysis

The general area of Bangladesh is 147,570 sq. km., and general Area of Darbar Sahib is about 4 sq. km.
Approximately 100,000 Pakistani soldiers stood against 300,000 Indian Army for 14 days.
Approximately 400 fighters of Bhindranwale stood against approximately 2.5 lakh trained and experienced soldiers for 5 days.
The Indian army had guns and mortars in both operations; the Pakistan army was also equipped with artillery weapons in addition to BMGs/MMGs and small arms. Fighters at Darbar Sahib had no guns or heavy weapons. They had about 400 small arms and limited ammunition.
Ratio 400/250000 is in no way a comparison, but the small number of fighters showed exemplary courage by standing against such a large army.

Dalvinder Singh Grewal · Jun 5, 2026

31 October 1984

India’s Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, had a typically busy agenda on October 31, 1984. In the morning, she was to be interviewed by renowned British actor, comedian, and writer Peter Ustinov. In the afternoon, she was due to host the former British prime minister, James Callaghan, for tea. The evening was reserved for a private dinner with Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, who was in India in her capacity as the president of the Save the Children charity. Elsewhere, the England cricket team, led by its captain David Gower, was landing at the airport for a hotly anticipated cricket series with India.

09.12 am

Peter Ustinov sits waiting for the Prime Minister in her New Delhi office at 1 Akbar Road, adjacent to her official residence at 1 Safdarjung Road. With the camera set up on the lawns of the extensive garden, the film crew was ready to record the interview for a new series entitled Peter Ustinov’s People.

Prime minister Indira Gandhi greeting the public at her residence in New Delhi. on February 25, 1983. Photographer Sondeep Shankar

09.16 am

The serene morning atmosphere was abruptly shattered by what one of the Indian cameramen at first dismissed as firecrackers. The sound of birdsong gave way to a deafening burst of machine gun fire. Struck by over thirty rounds, the Prime Minister drops to the ground, where she lies, bleeding profusely. The two assassins, security policemen Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, stand over her. The killing was in retaliation for Mrs. Gandhi’s decision to send the Indian Army into the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Harmandir Sahib, popularly known as the Golden Temple in Amritsar, in June 1984.

“Our cameras were locked into position, ready for her, and the cushions were ready as she [Mrs. Gandhi] wanted them on her chair. I was already miked up; the tea was on the table, and we were all ready for a much more static show than what we got. You live with the moment and you’re aware of everything, and if the whole garden is bristling with trigger-happy soldiers looking for something to move, not sure how many assassins there are, you’re absolutely on your guard and all your senses are woken. It’s only later that the shock waves come.” – Peter Ustinov, actor

09.30 am

Mrs. Gandhi is rushed to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital, four kilometres away. She is accompanied by her Italian daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi.

10.00 am

People wait in anticipation for news of the Prime Minister at the AIIMS hospital in the capital, New Delhi. The hospital reports Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s condition as ‘very grave’, as she undergoes an emergency operation to remove the bullets. The BBC announced news of the attack. All-India Radio follows an hour later. All senior defence officers are informed in anticipation of trouble. Photographer Ashok Vahie.

11.00 am

The crowds begin to swell at the hospital, awaiting further news of the prime minister’s condition. A lone Sikh policeman, visible by his turban, is seen in the centre of the crowd, unaware of what was in store for his community in the coming hours and days. Photographer Ashok Vahie.

2.20 pm

The road to and from the hospital has people lining both sides of the pavement while the doctors declare the Prime Minister dead. Radio Australia had already announced the death an hour ago. Photographer Ashok Vahie.

3.30 pm

Delhi’s senior Congress leadership, comprising H. K. L. Bhagat, Lalit Maken, Sajjan Kumar, Dharam Dass Shastri, and Arjan Dass, who had earlier arrived to pay their respects to their fallen leader, left the hospital. According to information collected by President Zail Singh, they had decided on a chilling slogan to underpin their plans: ‘Blood for blood’. Attacks on Sikhs began immediately outside the hospital.
A mob vented their anger on Sikh-owned taxis on the wide boulevards of the capital. Some in the crowds are still carrying their workplace briefcases and bags. Photographer Ashok Vahie.

4.30 pm

A group of young Sikhs take shelter within the AIIMS hospital after being attacked by mobs outside. Photographer Ashok Vahie.

5.00 pm

President Zail Singh (right) arrives at the hospital, accompanied by Arun Nehru MP (left) and a distant cousin of Rajiv Gandhi, who is alleged to have given the green light to his party and police to ‘teach the Sikhs a lesson’. Photographer Ashok Vahie.

5.45 pm

After leaving the hospital, en route to his residence, Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Zail Singh’s cavalcade is greeted by an angry mob of Congress Party workers chanting anti-Sikh slogans and being pelted with stones. Although his bulletproof car was relatively unscathed, a bodyguard’s turban was forcibly removed. In a second vehicle, his press officer fended off a vicious attack by staff-wielding thugs with a seat that had been ripped out of his car. Photographer Ashok Vahie.

6.00 pm

All India Radio announces Mrs. Gandhi’s death. India’s national newspapers publish special bulletins reporting the assassins as ‘two Sikhs and one clean-shaven Sikh’. Courtesy of The Wire.

6.30 pm

As news of the assassination spread, a group of distinguished Sikh military veterans hurriedly convened a meeting. They included Lieutenant-General Jagjit Singh Aurora, the hero of Mrs. Gandhi’s war of liberation in East Pakistan—the region that would become Bangladesh. In an attempt to prevent retaliation against the minority Sikh populace, the group issues the following condemnation of the assassination, though it fails to make the news:

“No society, least of all a society like ours with its long traditions of spiritualism, scholarship, and humanism, can allow black deeds of murderous folly to destroy its civilised fabric. We condemn in unequivocal terms the dastardly attempt on the life of the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, to which she tragically fell victim. We consider such an act, and what it is likely to trigger off, a grave threat to the country’s integrity and unity.”
Lt. Gen. J.S. Arora (Retd), Gurbachan Singh, Ex. Ambassador; Air Chief Marshall Arjan Singh; Ex. Chief of Air Staff; Brig. Sukhjit Singh (Retd); Patwant Singh, author

7.00 pm

Mrs. Gandhi’s son, Rajiv, is hurriedly installed as the country’s sixth and youngest Prime Minister. President Zail Singh (left) swears in Rajiv Gandhi (right) during the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

9.00 pm

A secret meeting takes place at the home of H.K.L. Bhagat, MP and Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and is attended by senior police officers, reportedly among them the additional commissioner of police, Hukum Chand Jatav, who had command over the capital’s Central, East, and North districts. Shoorveer Singh Tyagi, station house officer in charge of Kalyanpuri police station, made the claim to a lawyer years later that it was decided that officials ‘down the line [were] to let the killings take place and then erase all traces of the crime’.
At another meeting near the Trilokpuri colony, this time at the home of the local Congress Party pardhan (leader) Rampal Saroj, instructions were reportedly given verbally to party members present that ‘the entire Sikh community had to be taught a lesson’.
A senior bureaucrat in the government is warned of the impending carnage, alleging that ‘clearance has been given by Arun Nehru MP [cousin of Rajiv Gandhi] for the killings in Delhi, and the killings have started’. He went on to describe how the gruesome plan was to be implemented:

“The strategy is to catch Sikh youth, fling a tyre over their heads, douse them with kerosene and set them on fire. This will calm the anger of the Hindus.”
Former Petroleum Secretary Avtar Singh Gill, who was forewarned of the plan by Lalit Suri, a hotelier and friend of Rajiv Gandhi’s, Quoted by Hartosh Singh Bal. The Caravan. November 3, 2017.

During the evening

Sikh homes are marked with the letter ‘S’

False rumours begin to be spread targeting Sikhs

Blood for blood chants broadcast on national tv

Mrs. Gandhi’s Legacy

1 November 1984

Hour-by-hour accounts of the events in India following the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Tweet

Dalvinder Singh Grewal · Jun 5, 2026

Since 1947 there has been an ongoing struggle between the Indian state and the Sikh community over Punjabi autonomy and minority safeguards, promised at independence but never delivered.

In June 1984 the Indian government, in an attempt to crush the growing Sikh uprising movement, ordered a ferocious army attack on the Golden Temple in which 8 - 10,000 innocent pilgrims were brutally killed..

In 1984, India exposed its true nature and feelings towards Sikhs by carrying out Sikh genocide.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of Sikhs have been slaughtered. Every day, Sikh injustice continues.

Phase 1 of state terrorism began in June 1984 with the genocide of Punjab and Sri Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar, Sikhi's most visited and holy site (also known as the Golden Temple).

Phase 2 began on 31st October when the government used the Hindu masses to slaughter Sikhs in cold blood.

Since 1984, the Indian state has continued to carry out extrajudicial killings, deny Sikhs justice, undermine Sikh institutions, subvert the Sikh youth, and back anti-Sikh organisations.
Five months later, when the Sikh bodyguards delivered justice personally to Prime Minister Mrs Gandhi, Sikh genocide against innocent Sikhs was renewed. This led to mass violence against the Sikh population in Delhi and all over India.

These events greatly increased the conflict between the Sikh community and the Indian state and marked the beginning of a decade of extreme repression, during which Indian state forces violated the rights of thousands of ordinary citizens in an attempt to destroy an uprising movement.The Sikh Genocide that began in Nov 1984 was not just limited to Delhi. The Genocide was a series of pogroms directed against Sikhs in India, by the anti-Sikh government and mobs.

There were more than 8,000 deaths, including 3-4,000 in Delhi. The Central Bureau of Investigation, the main Indian investigating agency, was of the opinion that the acts of violence were organized with the support from the then Delhi police officials and the central government headed by Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv Gandhi.

Sikh property was systematically identified and destroyed

Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister after his mother's death and, when asked about the genocide, said, "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes." This was seen as an attempt to legitimize Sikh killings from the very top.

During the Indian Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the 1970s, thousands of Sikhs campaigning for autonomous government were imprisoned.

In June 1984, during Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to attack the Golden Temple and eliminate any Sikhs.

Later operations by Indian paramilitary forces were initiated to clear Sikhs from the countryside of Punjab state.

The violence in Delhi was triggered by the assassination of Indira Gandhi, India's prime minister, on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards in response to her actions authorising the military operation. The Indian government reported 2,700 deaths in the ensuing chaos.

In the aftermath of the riots, the Indian government reported 20,000 had fled the city, however the People's Union for Civil Liberties reported "at least" 100,000 displaced persons.

The most affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods in Delhi. Human rights organisations and newspapers across India believe the massacre was organised. The collusion of political officials in the massacres and the Judiciary's failure to penalise the killers alienated normal Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement. The Akal Takht, the governing religious body of Sikhism, considers the killings to be a genocide.

In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported the Government of India had "yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings." The 2011 WikiLeaks revealed that the United States was convinced about the complicity of the Indian government ruled by the Indian National Congress in the riots, and termed it as "opportunism" and "hatred" of the Congress government against Sikhs.

The United States has denied to recognize the riots as genocide, but do acknowledge that "grave human rights violations" did take place. Also in 2011, a new set of mass graves were discovered in Haryana, and Human Rights Watch reported that "Widespread anti-Sikh attacks in Haryana were part of broader revenge attacks" in India.

Background

In 1973 the Akali Dal and other Sikh groups introduced the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which set out Sikh ethics in Punjab. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, security in Punjab started deteriorating due to State level and religious politics, leading to the sacking of the Punjab government in 1983.

Sikhs wanted the right to self-determination as set out by the UN. The racist hindu led right wing government adopted a policy of genocide against the Sikhs.

By 1983, the Congress(I)-led Central Government dismissed its own Punjab government, declaring a state of emergency, and imposed the President's Rule in the state. During the five months preceding Operation Blue Star, from 1 January 1984 to 3 June 1984, thousands of people had been killed in various violent incidents across Punjab.

Sikhs were burnt with tires around their necks. Who supplied the Hindus?

Characteristics of Genocide
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984, a state-backed genocide of Sikhs erupted on 1 November 1984 and continued in some areas for days. Due to the large span of area, the actual number of those dead is unknown; official figures of those who died are over 4,000, and 60,000 were rendered homeless in Delhi alone. These figures to not incorporate those 'missing.' Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Trilokpuri, and other Trans-Yamuna areas of Delhi were the worst affected.

Mobs carried iron rods, knives, clubs, and combustible material, including kerosene and petrol. The mobs swarmed into Sikh neighborhoods, arbitrarily killing any Sikh men or women they could find. Their shops and houses were ransacked and burned.

Sikhs' most holy scripture was desecrated

In other incidents, armed mobs stopped buses and trains in and around Delhi, pulling out Sikh passengers to be lynched or doused with kerosene and burnt alive. Others were dragged out from their homes and hacked to death with bladed weapons.

"Such wide-scale violence cannot take place without police help. Delhi Police, whose paramount duty was to upkeep law and order and protect innocent lives, gave full help to rioters who were in fact working under able guidance of sycophant leaders like Jagdish Tytler and H K L Bhagat.

It is a known fact that many jails, sub-jails, and lock-ups were opened for three days, and prisoners, for the most part hardened criminals, were provided the fullest provisions, means, and instruction to "teach the Sikhs a lesson."

It would be wrong to say that Delhi Police did nothing, for they took full and keen action against Sikhs who tried to defend themselves. The Sikhs who opened fire to save their lives and property had to spend months dragging heels in courts afterwards."

- Jagmohan Singh Khurmi, The Tribune

Meetings and Distribution of Weapons

On 31 October, the crowd around the All India Institute of Medical Sciences began shouting for vengeance with slogans such as "Blood for blood!" and turned into an unruly mob. At 17:20, President Zail Singh arrived at the hospital, and the mob outside stoned his car. The mob began assaulting Sikhs by stopping cars and buses to pull Sikhs out of them and burn their turbans. The violence on 31 October was restricted to the area around the AIIMS and did result in many Sikh deaths. People in other parts of Delhi reported their neighborhoods were peaceful.

A Sikh bus driver was murdered by rampaging Hindus.

Throughout the night of 31 October and morning of 1 November, Congress leaders met with local supporters to distribute money and weapons. Congress party MP Sajjan Kumar and trade union leader Lalit Maken handed out 100 rupee notes and bottles of liquor to assailants.

On the morning of 1 November, Sajjan Kumar was seen holding rallies in, at least, the following Delhi neighborhoods: in Palam Colony from 06:30 to 07:00, in Kiran Gardens from 08:00 to 08:30, and in Sultanpuri from around 08:30 to 09:00.

In Kiran Gardens at 8:00 AM, Sajjan Kumar was seen distributing iron rods from a parked truck to a group of 120 people and instructing them to "attack Sikhs, kill them, and loot and burn their properties."

At an undefined time in the morning of 1 November, Sajjan Kumar led a mob of people along the Palam Railway main road to the Mangolpuri neighbourhood where the crowd answered his calls with chants of "Kill the Sardars" and "Indira Gandhi is our mother and these people have killed her".

Sikh were murdered inside their Gurdwara's
(places of worship)

In Sultanpuri, Moti Singh, a Sikh who had served in the Congress party for 20 years heard Sajjan Kumar give the following speech:

"Whoever kills the sons of the snakes, I will reward them. Whoever kills Roshan Singh and Bagh Singh will get 5,000 rupees each and 1,000 rupees each for killing any other Sikhs. You can collect these prizes on November 3 from my personal assistant Jai Chand Jamadar."

The CBI recently told the court that during the riot Sajjan Kumar had said that "not a single Sikh should survive." It also said that Delhi police kept its "eyes closed" during the riot as it was preplanned.

In the neighborhood of Shakarpur, Congress (I) leader Shyam Tyagi's home was used as a meeting place for an undefined number of people. H. K. L. Bhagat, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting distributed money to Boop Tyagi, Shyam Tyagi's brother, and ordered him to "Keep these two thousand rupees for liquor and do as I have told you.... You need not worry at all. I will look after everything."

During the night of 31 October, Balwan Khokhar, a local Congress (I) party leader who was later implicated in the ensuing massacre, held a meeting at the Ration Shop of Pandit Harkesh in the Palam Colony.

At 08:30 on 1 November, Shankar Lal Sharma, an active Congress party supporter, held a meeting at his shop where he formed a mob and had the people swear to kill Sikhs.

The chief weapon used by the mobs, kerosene, was supplied by a group of Congress Party leaders who owned filling stations.

In Sultanpuri, Brahmanand Gupta, the president of the A-4 block Congress Party, distributed oil while Congress Party MP Sajjan Kumar "instructed the crowd to kill Sikhs and to loot and burn their properties" as he had in other meetings throughout New Delhi.

In much the same way, meetings were held in places like Cooperative Colony in Bokaro, where P.K. Tripathi, president of the local Congress Party and owner of a gas station in Nara More, provided kerosene to mobs.

Aseem Shrivastava, a Master's student at the Delhi School of Economics, described the organized nature of the mobs in an affidavit submitted to the Misra Commission:

The attack on Sikhs and their property in our locality appeared to be an extremely organized affair... There were also some young men on motorcycles who were instructing the mobs and supplying them with kerosene oil from time to time. On more than a few occasions we saw an auto-rickshaw arriving with several tins of kerosene oil and other inflammable material such as jute sacks.

A senior official at the Ministry of Home Affairs informed journalist Ivan Fera that an arson investigation of several businesses burned in the riots had uncovered an unnamed combustible chemical "whose provision required large-scale coordination." Eyewitness reports confirmed the use of a combustible chemical besides kerosene. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee later identified 70 affidavits which cited the use of a highly flammable chemical in its written arguments before the Misra Commission.

Use Of voter lists by the Congress Party

On 31 October, Congress party officials provided assailants with voter lists, school registration forms, and ration lists. The lists were used to find the location of Sikh homes and businesses, an otherwise impossible task because they were located in unmarked and diverse neighborhoods.

On the night of 31 October, the night before the massacres began, assailants used the lists to mark the houses of Sikhs with the letter "S".

In addition, because most of the mobs were illiterate, Congress Party officials provided help in reading the lists and leading the mobs to Sikh homes and businesses in the other neighborhoods.

By using the lists the mobs were able to pinpoint the locations of Sikhs they otherwise would have missed.

Sikh men not in their homes were easily identified by their distinctive turban and beard while Sikh women were identified by their dress. In some cases, the mobs returned to locations where they knew Sikhs were hiding after consulting their lists. One man, Amar Singh, escaped the initial attack on his house by having a Hindu neighbour drag him into his neighbour's house and declare him dead.

However, a group of 18 assailants later came looking for his body, and when his neighbour replied that others had already taken away the body, an assailant showed him a list and replied, "Look, Amar Singh's name has not been struck off from the list so his dead body has not been taken away."

Timeline of events

First day (31 October)

09:20: Indira Gandhi is shot by two of her Sikh security guards at her residence, No. 1 Safdarjung Road, and rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
10:50: Indira Gandhi dies.
11:00: All India Radio listeners learn that the two security guards who shot Indira Gandhi were Sikhs.
16:00: Rajiv Gandhi returns from West Bengal and reaches AIIMS. Stray incidents of attacks in and around that area.
17:30: The motorcade of President Zail Singh, who is returning from a foreign visit, is stoned as it approaches AIIMS.

Evening and night:

Organized and well-equipped gangs of ruffians set out in different directions from AIIMS. The violence, including violence towards Sikhs and destruction of Sikh properties, spreads. Rajiv Gandhi is sworn in as the prime minister.

Senior advocate and BJP leader Ram Jethmalani meets Home Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and urges him to take immediate steps to protect Sikhs from further attacks. Delhi's Lt. Governor, P.G. Gavai, and Police Commissioner, S.C. Tandon, visit some of the affected areas.

Second day (1 November)

The first killing of a Sikh occurs in East Delhi.

09:00: Armed mobs take over the streets of Delhi and launch a massacre.

Among the first targets were Gurdwaras, the holy temples of Sikhs

The worst affected areas are low-income colonies like Trilokpuri, Shahdara, Geeta Colony, Mongolpuri, Sultanpuri, and Palam Colony. The few areas where the local police stations take prompt measures against mobs see hardly any killings or major violence. Farsh Bazar and Karol Bagh are two such examples.

Third day (2 November)

Curfew is announced throughout Delhi but is not enforced.

The army deployed throughout Delhi too but ineffective because the police did not co-operate with soldiers (who are not allowed to open fire without the consent of senior police officers and executive magistrates).

Mobs continue to rampage.

Fourth day (3 November)

Violence continues. By late evening, the national army and local police units work together to subdue the violence. After law enforcement intervention, violence is comparatively mild and sporadic.

In Delhi the dead bodies of the victims of riots were taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi and the Civil Hospital Mortuary, Tis Hazari, Delhi.
Over the course of 3 days in November 1984 in India, Sikhs were identified and killed, in the thousands.

Each flag marks the address of a documented victim (many more remain unrecorded).

Map locations are approximate.

Aftermath

The Delhi High Court, while pronouncing its verdict on a riots-related case in 2009, stated:

"Though we boast of being the world's largest democracy and the Delhi being its national capital, the sheer mention of the incidents of 1984 anti-Sikh riots in general and the role played by Delhi Police and state machinery in particular makes our heads hang in shame in the eyes of the world polity."

There are allegations that the government destroyed evidence and shielded the guilty. Asian Age, an Indian daily newspaper, ran a front-page story calling the government actions "the mother of all cover-ups."

From 31 October 1984 to 10 November 1984, human rights groups People's Union for Democratic Rights and the People's Union for Civil Liberties conducted an inquiry into the riots by interviewing victims, police officers, neighbours of the victims, army personnel, and political leaders. In their joint report, entitled Who Are the Guilty?, they concluded:

The attacks on members of the Sikh community in Delhi and its suburbs during the period, far from being a spontaneous expression of "madness" and of popular "grief and anger" at Mrs. Gandhi's assassination as made out to be by the authorities, were the outcome of a well-organized plan marked by acts of both deliberate commissions and omissions by important politicians of the Congress (I) at the top and by authorities in the administration.

Eyewitness accounts obtained by Time magazine state the Delhi Police looked on as "rioters murdered and raped, having gotten access to voter records that allowed them to mark Sikh homes with large Xs, and large mobs being bused in to large Sikh settlements."

Time reported the riots only led to minor arrests and that no major politician or police officer had been convicted and quotes. Ensaaf, a human rights organization, as saying the government worked to destroy evidence of involvement by refusing to record First Information Reports.

A Human Rights Watch report published in 1991 on violence between Sikh separatists and the Government of India traces part of the problem back to the government response to the violence:

Despite numerous credible eye-witness accounts that identified many of those involved in the violence, including police and politicians, in the months following the killings, the government sought no prosecutions or indictments of any persons, including officials, accused in any case of murder, rape or arson.

There are allegations that the violence was led and often perpetrated by Indian National Congress activists and sympathizers during the riot. The government, then led by the Congress, was widely criticised for doing very little at the time, possibly acting as a conspirator. Voting lists were used to identify Sikh families.

A few days following the massacre, many surviving Sikh youth in Delhi had retaliated in either joining or creating Sikh militant groups. This led to a series of more violent acts in the Punjab, where several assassinations of senior Congress party members took place. The Khalistan Commando Force and Khalistan Liberation Force took responsibility for the targeted hits in retaliation. An underground network had also been established between the victims of the genocide and Sikhs.

On 31 July 1985, Harjinder Singh Jinda, Sukhdev Singh Sukha, and Ranjit Singh Gill of the Khalistan Commando Force assassinated Lalit Maken (Member of Parliament of India and a leader of Congress (I)) to take revenge for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. In a 31-page booklet titled Who Are The Guilty, the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) listed 227 people who led the mobs, Lalit Maken's name was third on the list.

Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha also assassinated Congress (I) leader Arjan Dass because of his involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Arjan Dass's name appeared in various affidavits submitted by Sikh victims to the Nanavati Commission, which was headed by Justice G.T. Nanavati, retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

Convictions

In Delhi, 442 of the rioters were convicted by the courts. 49 of these were sentenced to life imprisonment, and another three to imprisonment of more than 10 years. 6 Delhi Police officers were punished for lapses during the riots. In April 2013, the Supreme Court of India dismissed the appeal of three convicts who had challenged the High Court's decision to award them life sentence.

In April 2013, the Karkardooma district court in Delhi convicted five people – Balwan Khokkar (former councilor), Mahender Yadav (former MLA), Kishan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal – for inciting a mob against the Sikhs in the Delhi Cantonment area. It acquitted the Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the same case, leading to protests.

Impact and Legacy

The attack on the Sikh community in India is remembered annually across the world. The Sikh genocide is the very reason Sikhs want a right to self-determination and support the creation of a Sikh homeland in India, often called Khalistan. Our surveys show over 90% of people are consistently in favour of a separate Sikh homeland.

Many ordinary Indians of different religious dispositions made significant efforts to hide and help Sikh families during the genocide. On 15 July 2010, the Sikh high clergy (Jathedar) declared the events following the death of Indira Gandhi to be a Sikh "genocide," replacing the widely used term "anti-Sikh riots" used by the Indian government, media, and other writers. The decision came soon after a similar motion was raised in the Canadian Parliament by a Sikh MP.

Role of Amitabh Bachchan

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan was accused by the Sikh community of instigating attacks. He is alleged to have made polemic remarks, saying "Khoon ka Badla Khoon se lenge" ("Blood for Blood"). Amitabh Bachchan was a close friend of the Gandhi family.

(Chapter of my Published book Recollections of Ghallughara, 1984)