Places

Where it happened.

• AfghanistanCountry where a once large Sikh community has shrunk to a few hundred people or fewer after war, the Taliban and Islamic State attacks on Kabul's gurdwaras in 2020 and 2022; counts vary widely.
• Allama Iqbal International Airport (Lahore)Lahore's airport, where the 1981 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight by Dal Khalsa members, who demanded Bhindranwale's release, ended on the tarmac.
• AmritsarThe Sikh holy city, founded by Guru Ram Das in 1577. Home of Sri Harmandir Sahib, Sri Akal Takht Sahib and the SGPC; scene of Jallianwala Bagh (1919) and Operation Blue Star (1984).
• Amritsar Central JailCentral jail in Amritsar where Gurdeep Singh Khera was brought in 2015 and where Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar has been treated since June 2015, while Delhi's review board has refused his release.
• Bhai Gurdas HallA hall near the Golden Temple in Amritsar used for Panthic gatherings, among them Dal Khalsa's seminar of 29 April 2025 and an Akal Takht meeting of scholars on 3 May 2026.
• BramptonCity west of Toronto where Sikhs were 25.1 percent of residents in 2021; site of the 2017 Ontario motion on 1984 and the first Canadian Khalistan referendum vote in 2022.
• Burail Jail (Model Jail, Chandigarh)Chandigarh's Model Jail, where several Beant Singh assassination convicts are held and from which Hawara, Bheora and Tara escaped by tunnel in January 2004.
• CanadaHome of the world's second largest Sikh community, 771,790 in the 2021 census; from the Komagata Maru and the 1947 vote to Air India 182, Ontario's 1984 motion and the Nijjar killing.
• ChandigarhPlanned city and Union Territory, the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana since 1966. Its transfer to Punjab, demanded in 1978 and promised in 1985, has never happened.
• DelhiIndia's capital, where Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred in 1675 and Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716, where Baghel Singh raised the historic gurdwaras in 1783, and where Sikhs were killed in November 1984.
• Dibrugarh Central JailA central jail in Assam, in India's north-east, where Punjab Police sent Amritpal Singh and his associates under the NSA from 2023. Families have asked for their transfer to a Punjab jail.
• Farooqabad (Chuharkana Mandi), PakistanTown in Sheikhupura district, once Chuhar Kana, where Gurdwara Sacha Sauda marks Guru Nanak's "true bargain" of feeding hungry ascetics with the twenty rupees his father gave him.
• Golden Offset PressThe SGPC's printing press at Gurdwara Ramsar Sahib, Amritsar, where saroops are printed; the 2016 fire at its publication branch is a central point in the 328 missing saroops case.
• GujranwalaPakistani city where Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Hari Singh Nalwa were born; nearby Eminabad, where Guru Nanak stayed with Bhai Lalo, has Gurdwara Rori Sahib.
• GurdaspurBorder district in Punjab's Majha belt: Banda Singh Bahadur's last stand at Gurdas Nangal in 1715, the 1947 border cut, and today's dispute over Christian conversion.
• Gurdwara Bangla SahibDelhi shrine on the site of Raja Jai Singh's bungalow, where Guru Har Krishan stayed in 1664; rebuilt by Baghel Singh in 1783 and known for its large free kitchen.
• Gurdwara Rakabganj SahibGurdwara beside Parliament in New Delhi where Guru Tegh Bahadur was cremated in 1675; scene of the 1913 to 1920 wall agitation, the 1 November 1984 siege and, since 2017, the Wall of Truth.
• Gurdwara Ramsar SahibShrine on the Ramsar tank in Amritsar where Guru Arjan prepared the Adi Granth in 1604; its SGPC publication department is the centre of the 328 missing saroops case.
• Gurdwara Sis Ganj SahibShrine in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, where Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded on 11 November 1675; its site was fought over in the courts until 1930, and the DSGMC runs it today.
• HaryanaState cut out of Punjab in 1966: the other side in the SYL canal and Chandigarh disputes, site of 1984 killings that came to light in 2011, and home to its own gurdwara committee.
• HoshiarpurDoaba district and Scheduled Caste Lok Sabha seat that Kanshi Ram won in 1996 and where Tamil-born Jeevan Singh of the Bahujan Dravida Party stood in 2024 as a tribute to him.
• IndiaThe republic Punjab has belonged to since 1947. About 20.8 million Sikhs, 1.7 percent of its people, live in it. The Panth's disputes with the state run through this history.
• JalandharDoaba city with a large Dalit population, near Guru Arjan's Kartarpur; Dera Sachkhand Ballan on its outskirts declared Ravidass Dharm a separate religion in 2010; Pentecostal churches have grown.
• Johar Town, LahoreResidential area of Lahore where Paramjit Singh Panjwar, chief of the Khalistan Commando Force, was shot dead on 6 May 2023; no killer has been named.
• Kartarpur Sahib (on the Ravi)Guru Nanak's settlement on the Ravi, where he spent his last two decades and died in 1539. In Pakistan since 1947. The corridor opened in 2019; India has kept it suspended since 7 May 2025.
• KashmirKashmir in Sikh history: the pandits' appeal to Guru Tegh Bahadur in 1675, a province of Ranjit Singh's kingdom from 1819 to 1846, and 35 Sikhs killed at Chattisinghpora in 2000.
• Khadoor SahibVillage near Tarn Taran that was the second Guru's seat from 1539 to 1552, and a Lok Sabha seat that in 2024 elected Amritpal Singh while he was held in Assam.
• KhalistanThe name of a proposed sovereign Sikh state. Put forward in a 1940 pamphlet, declared in 1980 and on 29 April 1986, and backed today by some Sikh groups. The Indian government rejects it.
• LahoreCapital of the Sikh kingdom under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the city where Guru Arjan Dev was martyred. It went to Pakistan in 1947; Gurdwara Dera Sahib stands near the Fort.
• Lohgarh (Iron Fort)Three Sikh forts carry the name Lohgarh: Guru Hargobind's at Amritsar, Guru Gobind Singh's at Anandpur Sahib, and Banda Singh Bahadur's headquarters at Mukhlisgarh.
• LudhianaA major city of Punjab, founded by the Lodis in 1480. Gurdwara Gau Ghat marks Guru Nanak's visit, the Akalis met here in 1965 and 1978, and trains were attacked near it in June 1991.
• MajhaThe central tract of the Punjab between the Beas and the Ravi, the birthplace and early home of Sikhism and the Panthic belt of Indian Punjab, and a front line of the dispute over church growth.
• Melbourne, AustraliaCapital of Victoria, the Australian state with the most Sikhs. Home of the Victorian Sikh Association and the Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan, and a stage for 1984 remembrance marches and a 2023 vote.
• Nabha Maximum Security JailMaximum-security prison in Nabha, Punjab, where TADA prisoner Lal Singh was held until August 2020 and from which KLF chief Harminder Singh Mintoo and five others were freed on 27 November 2016.
• Nankana SahibGuru Nanak's birthplace, once Talwandi Rai Bhoe, now a district in Pakistan's Punjab. It holds Gurdwara Janam Asthan and was the scene of the Saka Nankana Sahib massacre of 20 February 1921.
• Norwich, ConnecticutA small Connecticut city: a Sikh resident helped win a state day for the Tesra Ghallughara in 2018, a 1984 memorial at its library went up and came down in 2019, and a Sikh mayor won in 2025.
• PakistanThe country that holds the birthplaces of the Panth: Nankana Sahib, Kartarpur and Dera Sahib. About 16,000 Sikhs live there, and the shrines are run by a state board, the ETPB.
• Panja SahibGurdwara at Hasan Abdal in Pakistan with the stone bearing Guru Nanak's handprint; scene of the 1922 train sacrifice of Bhai Pratap Singh and Bhai Karam Singh; a Baisakhi site for Indian pilgrims.
• Patiala Central JailPunjab jail where Balwant Singh Rajoana, sentenced to death in 2007 for the 1995 killing of Beant Singh, is held while his mercy petition waits and the Supreme Court presses the Centre.
• PeshawarFrontier city annexed to the Sikh kingdom in 1834 under Hari Singh Nalwa. Home to Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh and to a Sikh community that has suffered targeted killings in recent years.
• PunjabLand of the five rivers, divided in 1947 and again in 1966. In Indian Punjab Sikhs are about 58 percent of the people, the only Indian state where they are a majority.
• Quetta, PakistanCapital of Balochistan, where a 200-year-old gurdwara returned to Sikhs in July 2020 after 73 years as a school, and where the demolition of a second gurdwara building is alleged.
• Shikarpur, Sindh, PakistanOld trading city in Sindh with a long Sikh and Nanakpanthi presence, now listed as having a functioning Gurdwara Sach Khand Sahib; Sindh's Sikhs fell from about 32,000 in 1941 to 5,182 in 2023.
• SialkotPakistani border city where Guru Nanak met the Sufi Hamza Ghaus under a ber tree; its Gurdwara Babe di Ber was the scene of the first agitation to reform shrine management, in 1913 to 1920.
• SirhindMughal-era town where Guru Gobind Singh's younger sons, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, were put to death on Wazir Khan's order; Sikhs razed it in 1710 and 1764. Fatehgarh Sahib marks the site.
• Sri Anandpur SahibThe City of Bliss, founded by Guru Tegh Bahadur in 1665. Birthplace of the Khalsa on Baisakhi 1699 and home of Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib, one of the five Takhts.
• Sri Harmandir SahibThe central shrine of the Sikh Panth, raised by Guru Arjan Dev in the Amrit Sarovar at Amritsar. Attacked and rebuilt many times, most recently in June 1984. Managed by the SGPC.
• Surrey, British ColumbiaA city near Vancouver with about 154,000 Sikhs. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of its Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, was shot dead in the car park on 18 June 2023.
• Takht Sri Damdama SahibOne of the five takhts, at Talwandi Sabo, where Guru Gobind Singh stayed in 1706 and Bhai Mani Singh prepared a fresh Guru Granth Sahib; the SGPC approved its status as a takht in 1966.
• Takht Sri Hazur SahibOne of the five takhts, at Nanded in Maharashtra, where Guru Gobind Singh passed the Guruship to the Guru Granth Sahib and died in 1708; its 1956 Act is again the subject of a dispute with the state.
• Takht Sri Keshgarh SahibOne of the five Takhts, on the hillock of Kesgarh fort at Anandpur Sahib, where Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa on 30 March 1699; run by the SGPC since 1923.
• Takht Sri Patna SahibTakht Sri Harimandar Sahib in Patna, Bihar, built on the house where Guru Gobind Singh was born on 22 December 1666; one of two Takhts outside Punjab.
• Tamil NaduSouthern state where a small group of Dalit activists has taken up Sikhism and formed the Bahujan Dravida Party, which stood candidates in Tamil Nadu and Punjab in 2024.
• Tarn TaranSikh holy town founded by Guru Arjan Dev in 1596, now a district. Also a place in the record of the cremation grounds Jaswant Singh Khalra examined in 1994 and 1995.
• Tihar JailDelhi's prison complex: where Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh were hanged on 6 January 1989, Bhullar was held until 2015, and Hawara asked in 2024 to be moved out.
• Yuba City, CaliforniaCalifornia farm city called Little Punjab: Sikh orchardists since the early 1900s, the Tierra Buena gurdwara of 1969 and the Nagar Kirtan begun in 1980.