Tesra Ghallughara: Delhi Pogrom

Who: Sikhs of Delhi, killed by mobs that The Tribune describes as directed by Congress supporters. Delhi Police, in Human Rights Watch's words, "simply stood by, and were often complicit." The Nanavati Commission (2005) indicted Sajjan Kumar, found "credible evidence" against Jagdish Tytler and named H. K. L. Bhagat as inciting Congress workers' crowds.

What: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. The killing of Sikhs began that day and lasted about 72 hours, until her cremation on 3 November. Mobs carried iron rods, lathis, kerosene and acid powder, and The Tribune's Rahul Bedi reports that some carried voter lists to identify Sikh households. The Nanavati Commission called it "an organised attack on the Sikhs."

The official toll is about 3,350 Sikhs, including 2,733 in Delhi (the Ahuja committee figure, which civil society groups call conservative). Human rights organisations put the countrywide toll above 5,000. Killings also reached Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Where: Across Delhi, including Raj Nagar (Delhi Cantonment), Sultanpuri, Janakpuri, Vikaspuri and Saraswati Vihar, the places named in the criminal cases against Sajjan Kumar, and in cities and villages across northern and central India.

Why it mattered: Punishment came slowly and rarely. Human Rights Watch counted ten commissions and committees and, by 2014, only 30 convictions, mostly of low-ranking Congress supporters; Delhi Police filed 587 FIRs and closed over 230 of them without investigation. Manmohan Singh apologised in Parliament in 2005 after the Nanavati report.

The case of Sajjan Kumar shows the pace:

• 2013: acquitted by a trial court in the Raj Nagar case.
• 17 December 2018: the Delhi High Court overturned that and sentenced him to life for the murder of five members of a family in Raj Nagar and the burning of a gurdwara.
• 20 September 2023: acquitted in the Sultanpuri case (the killing of Surjit Singh).
• 25 February 2025: sentenced to life by a trial court for the Saraswati Vihar killing of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh.
• 22 January 2026: acquitted in the Janakpuri and Vikaspuri cases.
• 20 August 2026: died in Tihar jail; on 25 August the Delhi High Court closed his appeal in the Saraswati Vihar case as abated.

In Panthic memory 1984 is a Ghallughara, after the Chhota (1746) and Vadda (1762). The name Tesra (Third) Ghallughara is used here for the November killings. Sikhs also use it for the June 1984 attack on Sri Darbar Sahib (Operation Blue Star): in May 2024 the five high priests (Singh Sahiban) at Sri Akal Takht Sahib declared that attack the Third Ghallughara (The Tribune), and SikhNet dates the Third Ghallughara from it.