 Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide, whilst independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000–17,000

Violence continued in the early 1980s because of the armed Sikh separatist Khalistan movement which sought independence from India.In July 1982, the Sikh political party Akali Dal's President Harchand Singh Longowal had invited Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to take up residence in Golden Temple Complex to evade arrest.Bhindranwale later on made the sacred temple complex an armoury and headquarters.