Pre-assault final positioning

Who: The Indira Gandhi government and its generals: Lt Gen K. Sundarji, Maj Gen Kuldip Singh Brar and Brig D. V. Rao. In the Sri Harmandir Sahib complex: Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale; Maj Gen Shabeg Singh (retd), who joined him in March 1984 and directed the fortifications; and the Akali leaders Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

What: The last days before the assault, 30 May to 3 June 1984.

• 26-27 May: A final meeting between the Centre and Akali leaders ended without result. On 27 May the Centre gave Sundarji the go-ahead.
• 30-31 May: Brig Rao reached Amritsar on 30 May and found all the major buildings fortified. On the evening of 31 May Brar was summoned from Meerut. His orders were to finish within 48 hours if possible, without damaging the Golden Temple and with minimum loss of life.
• 1 June: CRPF and BSF men around the complex and armed men on its towers exchanged fire, and eleven people were dead by evening. A strict curfew was clamped on Amritsar and the surrounding districts.
• 2 June: Longowal, Tohra and Giani Kirpal Singh met and appealed to the Panth to protect Darbar Sahib. The Army took over Amritsar from the paramilitary, and an officer scouted the complex posing as a pilgrim. That night Indira Gandhi spoke to the nation without mentioning the Army, and at 10 pm All India Radio announced that it had been called out.
• 3 June: The martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev. Hundreds of devotees were in the complex, along with a jatha from Sangrur that had come to court arrest in the Dharam Yudh Morcha. Punjab's road, rail and telephone links were cut, though the Amritsar curfew was lifted for the pilgrims. On the morning of 4 June Punjab woke to a state-wide curfew and a complete news blackout.

Where: Amritsar and the Sri Harmandir Sahib complex, with the whole of Punjab sealed off around it.

Why it mattered: The ring closed on the day the Panth remembers the Shaheedi of Guru Arjan Dev, with pilgrims inside, the roads and phones cut and the press shut out. The government said it had been forced to act by rising violence, the Akali plan to stop grain leaving Punjab from 3 June, reports that Bhindranwale would declare Khalistan around 10 June, and intelligence of orders to kill Hindus in the villages after that date. Many Sikhs argue the day was chosen to teach them a lesson, which governments have denied. Ramachandra Guha calls the Prime Minister's appeal for peace on 2 June "disingenuous", since the Army was already preparing. The main assault came on the night of 5 June.