Flashbacks - Golden Temple attack

Twenty years ago this week the India army stormed the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, the holiest shrine in the Sikh religion.

The BBC's Asit Jolly has been speaking to people involved in the Operation Bluestar and those caught up in it.

Click on an image below to read their story

The background to Operation Bluestar

Aftermath of the army attack on the Golden Temple complex (Photo: Swadesh Talwar, Indian Express)

In June 1984, India's late former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave personal approval to Operation Bluestar.

The objective was to flush out militant Sikhs, fighting for an independent homeland of Khalistan, from the Golden Temple complex.

Bluestar achieved its military objectives.

But the costs were enormous. There has never been agreement on how many people were killed in and around the temple, and how many of the dead were innocent bystanders, rather than militants.

Later that year Mrs Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards assassinated her.

That in turn triggered a wave of anti-Sikh rioting which left nearly 3,000 Sikhs dead.