India - Dangerous Days

 

01/03/89Muslim Kashmiri militants begin their campaign for independence from India.
01/06/89Two of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards are hanged for her assassination on October 31, 1984.
01/26/50India's constitution is promulgated and India becomes a republic within the Commonwealth. (Republic Day is also called Constitution Day.)
01/30/48Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated.
02/11/84Maqbool Butt, founder of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, was hanged in a New Delhi jail for the 1965 murder of an Indian intelligence agent in Kashmir. Militant Muslims have marked the anniversary of his death with sometimes violent demonstrations in Jammu and Kashmir.
02/15/91A pregnant 29-year-old is kidnapped and swapped for five rebels.
02/15/92India plants mines along border with Pakistan to stop traffic of insurgents between countries.
03/15/90Kashmiri political leader Mir Ghulum Mustafa is kidnapped and killed.
03/15/91Two Swedish engineers as well as a daughter and wife are kidnapped. The wife and child are released but the men are not released until 97 days later.
03/15/93Three hostages are swapped for seven guerrillas.
04/13/1699Sikh religion was founded by Guru Gobind Singh.
04/29/86Sikh militants seize the Golden Temple of Amritsar in Punjab and declare the independent state of Khalistan. Expelled by government of India forces the next day.
05/21/91Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated during a campaign rally in Tamil Nadu state.
06/06/84Indian troops stormed the golden temple of Amritsar, killing 300 Sikhs.
06/15/91Eight Israeli tourists are kidnapped. Six escape and one dies in the attempt. An oil executive is kidnapped and released 53 days later.
06/15/94Two Brits are kidnapped and released unharmed 17 days later.
06/23/85A bomb explodes on an Air India flight over the North Atlantic following its departure from Canada, killing all 329 passengers on board. A second bomb explodes at Narita airport in Japan, killing two people. Sikh extremists claim responsibility for both bombings.
07/04/95Al-Faran guerrillas kidnap two Britons, and two Americans near Pahalgam, 55 miles from Srinagar.
07/06/87Seventy-two Hindus are killed in an attack by Sikh militants on a bus in the Punjab.
07/13Martyr's day in Kashmir. It commemorates the deaths of Kashmiri nationalists during the British raj.
07/15/91Four government officers are kidnapped and executed three months later.
08/09/84The head of the Indian security forces that stormed the Sikh golden temple of Amritsar is assassinated by Sikh terrorists.
08/13/95Norwegian Hans Christian Ostro is found beheaded near Anantnag, 37 miles from Srinagar.
08/15/47Independence Day.
08/15/92Two army engineers are kidnapped and killed after the government refuses to release 17 jailed rebels.
09/15/91A former Kashmiri minister and her husband are kidnapped and freed in a raid one month later. The brother-in-law of an Indian minister, a policeman, an insurance worker, and a bank employee are kidnapped the same month. They are exchanged for rebels but not until a hostage's severed thumb is sent as proof.
10/01/94Rebel leader Shabir Shah released from prison.
10/31/84Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Anti-Sikh rioting following the assassination resulted in thousands of Sikh deaths throughout India.
11/12/96Mid-air crash of a Saudi 747 and a Kazakh cargo plane kills 349 people in the world's worst mid-air disaster.
11/15/91The manager of the state-run radio station is kidnapped and exchanged for a guerrilla.
12/03/84A chemical leak at Union Carbide's Bhopal plant results in 2000 deaths and nearly 150,000 injuries.
12/06/92Hindu extremists destroyed the 16th-century Muslim mosque at Ayodhya in India's Uttar Pradesh state. The subsequent rioting and Muslim-Hindu clashes that engulfed India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other nations resulted in over 1000 deaths. Hindus claim the mosque was built on the birth site of the Hindu god Rama, a claim disputed by Muslims.
12/15/89Guerrillas kidnap daughter of Indian home minister and swap her for five insurgents.
12/15/90Indian army fires on demonstrators, killing 38 in Srinagar. Separatists begin a military campaign for independence.


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