Casualties
The Army placed total casualties at:
- Military: 83 (4 officers, 16 Junior Commissioned Officers and 63 other ranks) and 220 wounded.
- Civilians: 492 dead
- Militants: 433 out of the 1592 people apprehended were segregated as militants
Some of the estimates include:
| Authors/Officials | Casualties |
|---|---|
| Indian Government white paper category civilian/terrorist | 493 |
| AP, Reuters and New York Times (11 June 1984) | 1,000 |
| Author Mark Tully's (Amritsar, Mrs. Gandhi's last battle) | 2,093 |
| Amritsar crematorium worker | 3,300 |
| Author Chand Joshi (Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality) | 5,000 |
| Eyewitnesses | 8,000 |
| Author A R Darshi (The Gallant Defender) | 5,000 (most conservative) |
Combatants killed
| Source | Casualties |
|---|---|
| Government White Paper 200, 35 bodies in Akal Takht | 200 |
| A.I.S.S.F. Member – 100 fighters 5 June | 100 |
| S.S. Bhagowalia, V.P. Association for Democratic Rights | 140–150 |
Indian Government White Paper
| Government source | casualties |
|---|---|
| Own troops killed | 83 |
| Own troops wounded | 249 |
| Innocent killed | 493 |
| injured | 86 |
| Civilians/Sikh's apprehended | 1,592 |
According to some journalists, several Sikh youths were also killed in crossfire from militants.
Unofficial casualty figures were much higher.
Mark Tully and Satish Jacob mention of use of tanks by the army at Sultanwind area over the civilian Sikhs marching towards Amritsar.
According to the independent sources number of military personnel dead amount to more than at least 700. CNN-IBN on the 25 death anniversary of Indira Gandhi, i.e. 31 Oct 2009, reported to have lost 365 commandos. Apart from this, an unspecified number of soldiers have been reported dead during the fighting at 38 other Gurdwaras in Punjab where an extreme resistance was reported at Muktsar and Moga. On top of this, more number of Indian army personnel would have perished during mutinies by Sikh soldiers at different military locations across India.
In one of the most cited instances, the sikh soldiers-recruits at Sikh regimental center Ramgarh killed their Commanding Officer and after looting the arsenal started a long journey towards Punjab. And they could be restrained only after a massive resistance.
Read more about this topic: Operation Blue Star