Background
In the 1950s theDharam Yudh Morcha
{{Main, Dharam Yudh Morcha Bhindranwale had risen to prominence in the Sikh political circle with his policy of getting the Anandpur Sahib Resolution passed.Operation Blue Star
{{Main, Operation Blue StarAssassination of Indira Gandhi and anti-Sikh riots
The Operation Bluestar was criticized by many Sikhs bodies, who interpreted the military action as an assault on Sikh religion.{{cite book , last = Westerlund , first = David , title = Questioning The Secular State: The Worldwide Resurgence of Religion in Politics. , publisher = C. Hurst & Co , year = 1996 , page = 1276 , isbn =1-85065-241-4 Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in vengeance by her two Sikh bodyguards,Militancy
Since the November 1984 pogrom, the Sikhs considered themselves a besieged community.{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=20 The majority of Sikhs in Punjab would come to support the insurgents as harsh police measures, harassment of innocent Sikh families, and fake encounters from the state had progressively increased support, and provided fresh motives for angry youth to join the insurgents, who were extolled by the community as martyrs as they were killed by police.{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=20 Police activity discriminatory towards Sikhs increased alienation greatly, triggering indiscriminate militant incidents.{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=20 However, the insurgent groups were also highly vulnerable to the infiltration by the security forces, providing possible motive as to frequent assassination of those suspected of being informants.{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=20 A section of Sikhs turned to militancy in Punjab; some Sikh militant groups aimed to create an independent state calledPakistan involvement
According to Indian general Afsir Karim, there was "nothing to suggest that the initial break between Sikhs and the national mainstream was engineered by outside agencies."{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=19 The first impetus occurred shortly after Independence in 1951 when Punjabi Hindus, under the influence of local Hindu radical groups,{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=19 abandoned Punjabi to call Hindi their mother tongue in falsified censuses to prevent the formation of the Punjabi Suba, which brought out other differences between the two communities in the open.{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=19 Despite this, it required an event of the magnitude of Operation Blue Star to give rise to militancy in an organized form.{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=19 The pre-operation period generated enough heat to draw Pakistan interest, but it was Operation Blue Star which gave the final push to angry Sikh youth to cross the border and accept Pakistani assistance and support.{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=19 Even then their anger was "not particularly against the Hindu population but against the humiliation of Blue Star compounded by the anti-Sikh riots of 1984."{{sfn, Karim, 1991, p=19 In 1964, Pakistani state-owned Pakistan Radio, radio station began airing separatist propaganda targeted for Sikhs in Punjab, which continued during the Indo-Pak war of 1965. Pakistan had been promoting the Sikh secessionist movement since the 1970s. The Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had politically supported the idea of Khalistan wherever possible. Under Zia ul Haq, this support became even more prominent. The motive for supporting Khalistan was the revenge for India's role in Liberation of Bangladesh, splitting of Pakistan in 1971 and to discredit India's global status by splitting a Sikh state to vindicate Jinnah's Two-nation theory.{{cite book , last1=Kiessling , first1=Hein , title=Faith, Unity, Discipline: The Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan , date=2016 , publisher=Oxford University Press , isbn=978-1849048637 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_cgDgAAQBAJ&q=bhindranwale+ISI&pg=PT146 , access-date=2 October 2018 Zia had seen this as an opportunity to weaken and distract India in another war of insurgency following the Pakistani military doctrine to "Bleed India with a Thousand Cuts". Former Director General of ISI Hamid Gul had once stated that "Keeping Punjab destabilized is equivalent to the Pakistan Army having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers."{{cite book , last1=Sirrs , first1=Owen L. , title=Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate: Covert Action and Internal Operations , date=2016 , publisher=Routledge , isbn=978-1317196099 , page=167 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_S-TDAAAQBAJ&q=bhindranwale+ISI&pg=PA167 , access-date=7 November 2018 Since the early 1980s, for the fulfillment of these motives, the spy agency Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan became involved with the Khalistan movement. ISI created a special Punjab cell in its headquarter to support the militant Sikh followers of Bhindranwale and supply them with arms and ammunitions. Terrorist training camps were set up in Pakistan at Lahore and Karachi to train them. ISI deployed its Field Intelligence Units (FIU) on the Indo-Pak Border. Organisations like Bhindranwale Tiger Force, the Khalistan Commando Force, the Khalistan Liberation Force and the Babbar Khalsa were provided support. A three-phase plan was followed by the Punjab cell of ISI. * ''Phase 1'' had the objective to initiate alienation of the Sikh people from rest of the people in India. * ''Phase 2'' worked to subvert government organisation and organize mass agitations opposing the government. * ''Phase 3'' marked the beginning of a ''reign of terror in Punjab'' where the civilians became victims of violence by the militants and counter-violence by the government, due to which a vicious cycle of terrorism would be induced and utter chaos would ensue. The ISI also attempted to make appeals to the five-member Panthic Committee, elected from among the religious leaders of the Panth at the Panj Takhts as the upholders of the Sikh religion, as well as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee due to its substantial financial resources, and as both Sikh committees had major political influence over Punjab and New Delhi. Sikhs in Pakistan were a small minority and the Panthic Committee in Pakistan assisted the propaganda campaign of ISI in its propaganda and psychological warfare. The Sikh community in the country and abroad were its target. Panthic Committee delivered religious speeches and revealing incidents of torture to the Sikhs. Sikhs were instigated to take up arms against the Indian Government "in the name of a hypothetical autonomous Sikh nation". ISI used Pakistani Sikhs as partners for its operation in the Indian Punjab. The terrorist training program was spread over and the Sikh gurdwaras on both sides of International border were used as place for residence and armoury for storing weapons and ammunitions. The direct impact of these activities was felt during the Operation Blue Star where the Sikh insurgents fighting against the army were found to be well trained in warfare and had enough supply of ammunitions. After the Operation Blue Star several modern weapons found inside the temple complex with the Pakistan or Chinese markings on them.{{cite news , title=Operation Bluestar , work=India Today , date=1999Training and infrastructure
Pakistan had been involved in training, guiding, and arming Sikh militants. Interrogation reports of Sikh militants arrested in India gave details of the training of Sikh youth in Pakistan including arms training in the use of rifles, sniper rifle, light machine gun, grenade, automatic weapons, chemical weapons, demolition of buildings and bridges, sabotage and causing explosions using gunpowder by the Pak-based Sikh militant leaders and Pakistani army officers. A dozen terrorist training camps had been set up in Pakistan along the International border. These camps housed 1500 to 2000 Sikh militants who were imparted guerrilla warfare training. Reports also suggested plans of ISI to cause explosions in big cities like Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Delhi and targeting politicians.{{cite news , title=CIA, ISI encouraged Sikh terrorism: Ex-R&AW official , url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jul/26raw.htm , access-date=7 November 2018 , publisher=Rediff News , date=26 July 2007 According to KPS Gill, terrorists had been mainly using crude bombs but since 1990s more modern explosives supplied by Pakistan had become widespread in usage among them. The number of casualties also increased with more explosives usage by the terrorists.Weapons
By providing modern sophisticated weapons to the Sikh extremists, the Pakistani ISI was efficacious in producing an environment which conducted guerrilla warfare. AK-47 provided by ISI was primarily used by the militants as an ideal weapon in their guerrilla warfare, based on its superior performance in comparison to other weapons. While the Indian policemen fighting the militants had Lee–Enfield, .303 Lee–Enfield rifles that were popular in the World war II and only a few of them had FN FAL, 7.62 1A self loading rifles. These weapons were outmatched by automatic AK-47s. A militant fromEnd of violence
Between 1987 and 1991, Punjab (India), Punjab was placed under an ineffective President's rule and was governed from Delhi. Elections were eventually held in 1992 but the voter turnout was poor. A new Congress(I) government was formed and it gave the Chief of the State Police, Punjab Police (India) KPS Gill, K.P.S. Gill a free hand. Under his Command, police had launched multiple intelligence-based operations like Operation Black Thunder#Operation Black Thunder II, Operation Black Thunder to neutralise Sikh militants. Police was also successful in killing multiple High-value terrorists thus suppressing the violence and putting an end to mass killings. By 1993, the Punjab insurgency had petered out, with a last major incident being the Beant Singh (Chief Minister)#Assassination, Assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh occurring in 1995. 1,714 security personnel, 7,946 militants, and 11,690 non-combatants were killed throughout the conflict. Some sources have stated higher figures for non-combatant deaths.Timeline
{{main, Timeline of the insurgency in Punjab {, class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" , - , + Punjab Insurgancy Chronology Outline , - ! Date , , Event , , Source , - , March 1967, , Akali Dal heavily defeats INC Indian Congress Party in successive elections after 1967 Punjab Legislative Assembly election. , , , - , March 1972, , Akali Dal loses in 1972 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, Punjab elections, Congress wins. , , , - , 17 October 1973 , , Anandpur Resolution, Akalis ask for their rights through Anandpur Sahib Resolution , , , - , 25 April 1980, , Gurbachan Singh of Sant Nirankari sect shot dead., , , - , 2 June 1980, , Akalis lose suspect election in Punjab , , , - , 16 Aug 1981, , Sikhs in Harmandir Sahib, Golden Temple meet foreign correspondent about their views on Khalistan, , , - , 9 Sep 1981, , Jagat Narain, Editor, Hind Samachar group murdered., , , - , 29 Sep 1981, , Sikh Separatists hijack aircraft to Pakistan., , , - , 11 Feb 1982, , US gives Visa to Jagjit Singh Chauhan., , , - , 11 Apr 1982, , US Khalistani G.S. Dhillon Barred From India, , , - , July 1982, , Sikh militants storm the parliament in a protest related to the deaths of 34 Sikhs who were tortured in police custody. , , {{cite news, title=ANGRY SIKHS STORM INDIA'S ASSEMBLY BUILDING, author=WILLIAM K. STEVENS, work=THE NEW YORK TIMES, date=12 October 1982, url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A14FA3C5F0C718DDDA90994DA484D81&scp=1&sq=ANGRY+SIKHS+STORM+INDIA%27S+ASSEMBLY+BUILDING , - , 4 Aug 1982, , Akalis demand autonomy and civil rights for Punjab, , , - , 11 Oct 1982, , Sikh stage protests at the Indian Parliament which is violently broken up , , , - , Nov 1982, , Longowal threatens to disrupt Asian Games but Sikhs are mass arrested and abducted before reaching the games,protests disrupted, , , - , 27 Feb 1983, , Sikhs permitted to carry daggers in domestic flights, , , - , 23 April 1983, , Punjab Police Deputy Inspector General A. S. Atwal was shot dead as he left the Harmandir Sahib compound by a unknown gunman, widely believed to be anti-Damdami Taksal and anti-brindranwale Sikh group AKJ, who had also occupied the Darbar Sahib Complex with firearms , , , - , 3 May 1983, ,See also
* 1984 Anti-Sikh riots * 1987 Punjab killings * 1991 Punjab killings *References
{{ReflistBibliography
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