There have been many different types of religious conflicts in India in the last century, the brutal violence can go back more than five hundred years, but more recently tensions were built up in Delhi after Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for the attack on the Sikh holy shrine in Amritsar, Harimandar Sahib (Golden Temple). The violence unleashed upon the Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country by Hindu mobs from October 31st to November 4, 1984 is unquestionably connected with the tensions in Punjab, India since 1981. Sikhs have not been satisfied in India, they feel they have been treated as slaves in and they have not seen a fair share of the progress in Punjab. While communications between Sikhs and The government were often misinterpreted and mostly misunderstood, the tension between the two never stopped mounting. There were many talks of negotiations between the Indian Government and representatives of the Sikhs political group, the Akali Dal. Some publicized, others in secrecy, nothing ever progressed out of these talks. A series of incidents including bank robberies, killing of innocent civilians occurred during these times. Many of the victims were Hindu, an almost equal amount were Sikhs. Indian newspapers which were government run were not helping the cause by slandering Sikhs and reporting only the deaths of Hindus by Sikhs. The Prime Minister of India at that time was Indira Gandhi, while the Sikhs regarded Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who played the main role in the Sikh rebellion, as their leader. Sikhs have been engaged in an armed insurgency for the past two decades. Their ultimate aim is the formation of a sovereign nation called Khalistan, "land of the pure". Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the past two decades. In early June 1984, The Indian government forces attacked the Golden Temple in Amristar on the pretext of flushing out terrorists.
