... when British troops fired upon a political gathering. The city was a center of protest against the 1947 partition of Punjab between India and Pakistan. Amritsar was again an arena of conflict in June 1984, when the Indian government, in an effort to check terrorism by Sikhs demanding greater autonomy for the Punjab, sent troops to occupy the Golden Temple, claiming the terrorists had been using it as their headquarters; hundreds were killed in the confrontation. Population (1991) 709,456.1 The center of Sikh resistance was also the religion's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple at Amritsar. On June 2, 1984, the temple was sealed off by Indian troops, who then occupied the shrine, killing hundreds of Sikhs and seizing caches of ammunition. The troops withdrew by the end of the month, but outrage among Sikh nationalists persisted. On October 31 Indira Gandhi was shot and killed by Sikh members of her personal ...

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