User:Infographic/sandbox/1984 - Sikh Genocide
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The 1984 Sikh Genocide, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms[3][4][1] against Sikhs in India by anti-Sikh mobs in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Official Indian government reports numbered about 2,800 killed across India, including 2,100 in Delhi.[1][5] Independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000,[2][6][7] including at least 3,000 in Delhi.[8]
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1984 Sikh Genocide | |
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Location | Punjab, Delhi |
Date | 31 October – 4 November 1984 |
Target | Sikhs |
Attack type | Massacre, mass murder, forced conversion, arson, abduction, rape, acid throwing |
Deaths | (official) 2,800[1] (unofficial) 8,000[2] |
Perpetrators | Congress Party members |
Motive | Avenging the assassination of Indira Gandhi |
Violence continued in the early 1980s due to the armed Sikh separatist Khalistan movement which sought independence from India. In July 1983, the Sikh political party Akali Dal's President Harchand Singh Longowal had invited Bhindranwale[who?] to take up residence in Golden Temple Complex to evade arrest.[9][10] Bhindranwale later on made the sacred temple complex an armoury and headquarters.[11] In the violent events leading up to the Operation Blue Star since the inception of Akali Dharm Yudh Morcha, the militants had killed 165 Hindus and Nirankaris, even 39 Sikhs opposed to Bhindranwale were killed. The total number of deaths was 410 in violent incidents. while 1,180 people were injured.[12]
Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation carried out between 1 and 8 June 1984, ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to remove militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed militants from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab.[13] Bhindranwale died and militants were removed from the temple complex. The military action in the temple complex was criticized by Sikhs worldwide who had interpreted it as an assault on Sikh religion.[14] Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in vengeance by her two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh.[10]
Public outcry over Gandhi's death led to the killings of Sikhs in the ensuing genocide.[15] In the aftermath of the genocide, the government reported that 20,000 had fled the city; the People's Union for Civil Liberties reported "at least" 1,000 displaced persons.[16] The most-affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi. Human rights organisations and newspapers across India believed that the massacre was organised.[1][17][18] The collusion of political officials in the violence and judicial failure to penalise the perpetrators alienated Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement.[19] The Akal Takht, Sikhism's governing body, considers the killings genocide.[20]
In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that the Government of India had "yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings".[21] According to the 2011 WikiLeaks cable leaks, the United States was convinced of Indian Government complicity in the genocide and called it "opportunism" and "hatred" by the Indian government of Sikhs.[22][23] Although the U.S. and Canada has identified the riots as genocide, it acknowledged that "grave human rights violations" occurred.[24] In 2011, a new group of mass graves was discovered in Haryana and Human Rights Watch reported that "widespread anti-Sikh attacks in Haryana were part of broader revenge attacks" in India.[25] The Central Bureau of Investigation, the main Indian investigative agency, believes that the violence was organised with support from the Delhi police and some central-government officials.[17]