General Vaidya assassinated

Who: General Arun Shridhar Vaidya, Army chief from 1983 until he retired on 31 January 1986, and holder of two Maha Vir Chakras. His assassins were Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha, whom ThePrint describes as members of the Khalistan Commando Force.

What: On 10 August 1986 Vaidya was driving his Maruti 800 in Pune when two men on a motorcycle came alongside and shot him in the head (ThePrint and the Supreme Court judgment). UPI reported four gunmen on a motorcycle and a scooter. His wife Bhanu, sitting beside him, was hit by four bullets but survived. His only guard, a police constable in the back seat, was not hurt. Sukha's account, set out by 1984 Tribute, says the motorcycle followed the car and that the killers raised slogans afterwards; his and Jinda's accounts differ on who rode and who fired.

Sukha was caught in Pune in September 1986. Jinda was still at large on 18 August 1986, when UPI reported that police had not arrested the suspects. On 30 March 1987 UPI reported that police had arrested him in December 1986 over a bus hijacking and that armed men had just freed him from a police van near Moga. He was arrested again at Gurdwara Majnu da Tilla in Delhi on 31 August 1987 (Wikipedia, citing an AP report). They were tried by the Designated Court at Pune under the anti-terrorism law (charge sheet 14 August 1987, charges framed 2 September 1988). On 19 September 1988 Sukha told the court he had killed Vaidya, and on 26 September filed a written statement admitting he fired four shots. On 21 October 1989 the court sentenced both men to death, subject to confirmation by the Supreme Court; no High Court was involved. The Supreme Court confirmed the sentences on 15 July 1992 and, UPI reported, rejected last-minute pleas for a stay. They were hanged at Yerwada jail, Pune, at 4 am on 9 October 1992. Sukha had said in a 1988 statement that he alone killed Vaidya; 1984 Tribute says that statement was meant to shield accomplices.

Where: Pune, Maharashtra, where Vaidya was completing a home in Koregaon Park.

Why it mattered: As chief, Vaidya was responsible for the army's action at the Golden Temple, which made him a target on Sikh hit lists, ThePrint reports.

In Panthic memory Jinda and Sukha are honoured as martyrs. On 9 October 2017, the 25th anniversary of the hanging, the head granthi of Sri Darbar Sahib and others honoured Jinda's brother and sister and Sukha's niece with siropas after bhog and ardas at the Akal Takht, and Dal Khalsa leaders called the two "martyrs of the Khalistan struggle".