Word: punjab
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...wrecked on its way to nowhere. We need not go into history to discover that not all ships make it to port." That somber reflection on the present condition of a country that is still known as the world's largest democracy came as tension in troubled Punjab was beginning to ebb. Three weeks after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the Indian army to Amritsar to flush Sikh terrorists out of the Golden Temple, she paid a visit to the Sikhs' holiest shrine. All foreigners and journalists were still banned from Punjab, but some curfew restrictions throughout...
...army cleans up, as calm returns to Punjab...
...guns fell silent last week around the Sikhs' Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab, leaving a tentative, uneasy calm in their wake. Steel-helmeted troops were positioned on many street corners, ready to quell any new outbreak of violence. The revered Golden Temple remained intact, but surrounding buildings lay in ruins or were seriously damaged. The destruction was a testament to the bloody battle that raged there for 36 hours earlier this month, after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the army to attack more than 1,000 heavily armed Sikh extremists barricaded inside the temple grounds...
...days the government had imposed a ban on any news coming out of Punjab. But last week a small pool of Western and Indian journalists was flown into Amritsar by the Indian government to view the scars of battle. No cameras were allowed, and journalists were not permitted to question officials...
When the government-imposed curfew was finally lifted in some parts of Punjab, Sikhs emerged profoundly shaken, yet more strongly united by a sense of alienation. In eight separate incidents, young Sikh army recruits mutinied and deserted in protest. Some raided army arsenals or attacked non-Sikh troops. By week's end, 3,097 Sikhs had been arrested as deserters and another 55 killed in shootouts with loyal army units...