Indian Army buildup begins

Who: Indian Army formations deploying to Punjab. Operations commanded by Major General Kuldip Singh Brar (later Lieutenant General; Operation Blue Star commander).

What: Final Indian Army buildup for Operation Blue Star, troops deployed to Punjab, Amritsar region, and specifically to positions around Sri Harmandir Sahib complex. Operational planning specifics included:

• 36th Infantry Division deployment.
• Tanks and armored vehicles moved forward.
• Commando units (Garhwal Rifles, Parachute Regiment, Madras Regiment) positioned.
• Communications jamming capability established.
• Curfew clamped on Amritsar and nearby districts on June 1.
• On June 3 road, rail and telephone links were cut, a 36-hour curfew covered all Punjab, and the press was expelled.

Where: Punjab; concentration at Amritsar region.

Why it mattered: Operational readiness established for June 1, 1984 assault initiation. The media blackout was specifically designed to prevent independent reporting of the assault, producing the information vacuum that shaped subsequent narrative control.

The scale:

• Six additional divisions, including trained para-commandos, inducted into Punjab by the end of May 1984 (some accounts: at least seven).
• The largest Indian military operation on Indian soil in independent India's history to that point.

Command: Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar (the notorious "KS Brar"), himself a Sikh, commanded the ground operation. Per Panthic historical judgment, KS Brar was declared Tankhaiya (religiously censured) by the 2015 Sarbat Khalsa, a retrospective religious sanction for commanding the assault on Sri Harmandir Sahib.