Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 a.m. on this day in 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, an Indian military action carried out between June 1 and 8, 1984 ordered by Indira Gandhi to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the Golden Temple of Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Punjab. The collateral damage included the death of many pilgrims, as well as damage to the Akal Takht. The military action on the sacred temple was criticized both inside and outside India.

The Indian Army suffered around 700 deaths with most of 80-200 militants dying as well. Over 5,000-10,000 civilians were also killed in the Operation, which also caused serious damage to two of holiest Sikh shrines the Golden Temple and Akal Takht.

The perceived threat to Gandhi’s life increased after the operation. Accordingly, Sikhs were removed from her personal bodyguard detail by the Intelligence Bureau for fear of assassination. Gandhi thought that this would reinforce her anti-Sikh image among the public, however, and she ordered the Delhi Police to reinstate her Sikh bodyguards, including Beant Singh, who was reported to be her personal favourite.

At about 9:20 a.m. Indian Standard Time, on this in 1984, Gandhi was on her way to be interviewed by British actor Peter Ustinov, who was filming a documentary for Irish television. She was accompanied by Constable Narayan Singh, personal security officer Rameshwar Dayal and Gandhi’s personal secretary, R. K. Dhawan and was walking through the garden of the Prime Minister’s Residence at No. 1 Safdarjung Road in New Delhi towards the neighbouring 1 Akbar Road office, and passed a wicket gate guarded by Constable Satwant and Sub-Inspector Beant Singh, when the two men opened fire. Beant fired three rounds into her abdomen from his .38 (9.7 mm) revolver; and  Satwant fired 30 rounds from his Sterling sub-machine gun after she had fallen to the ground. Gandhi was not wearing her bulletproof vest  she had been advised to wear at all times after Operation Blue Star.

Both men then threw down their weapons and Beant said, “I have done what I had to do. You do what you want to do.” In the next six minutes, Border Police officers Tarsem Singh Jamwal and Ram Saran captured and killed Beant, while Satwant was arrested by Gandhi’s other bodyguards and an accomplice trying to escape; he was seriously wounded. Satwant Singh was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for killing Gandhi. He was hanged in 1989, along with accomplice Kehar Singh.

Gandhi was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi at 9:30 a.m. Doctors operated on her. She was declared dead at 2:20 p.m. The postmortem examination was conducted by a team of doctors headed by Tirath Das Dogra, who stated that 30 bullets had struck Gandhi from a Sterling sub-machine gun and a revolver. The assailants had fired 33 bullets at her, of which 30 had hit; 23 had passed through her body, while seven remained inside.

-Wikipedia