Amritsar, Massacre of Sikhs (1984)

The 1984 massacre of almost 3,000 Sikhs came as a response to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. The prime minister, who was walking through her garden to be interviewed by Peter Ustinov for a BBC program, was shot by her two Sikh bodyguards in revenge for her sanctioning of Operation Blue [Page 56]Star, a military attack against Sikh militants. Operation Blue Star commenced at 7:30 a.m. on June 6, 1984, when Indian army tanks began shelling the Sikh shrine, the Akal Takht, which contained Sikhism’s most sacred texts. The Akal Takht was completely destroyed, and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh preacher who had been demanding a homeland for the Sikhs for 6 years, was killed along with many ...