Battle inflamed by attack on Golden Temple is at a turning point ... in Britain

In the Indian state of Punjab, the Sikh heartland, separatists under the leadership of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale began a campaign of terror to press their demand for the Punjab to become an independent Sikh state, Khalistan.

Many Hindus, and Sikh opponents of Bhindranwale, were murdered and he and armed followers took over the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, the Sikh equivalent of the Kaaba at Mecca. In June 1984, Indian forces stormed the site, damaging one of the holiest shrines and killing an estimated 1,000 civilians, including pilgrims, as well as the militants. Sikh fury erupted in a nine-year insurgency which claimed about 20,000 lives. The ISYF and Babbar Khalsa played a leading part in the killing, with a campaign of bombings and shootings of civilians.

In October 1984, the Indian prime minister who ordered the Golden Temple assault, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by one of her Sikh bodyguards. In 1985, Sikh terrorism went international, with the devastating attack on an Air India flight from Montreal to London.

There was a simultaneous, failed, attack on a flight from Japan. Britain's large Sikh community provided money, arms and at least one of the Air India bombers.

By 1993 the Sikh insurgency was largely over. But the Babbar Khalsa and Sikh Federation UK still keep the separatist flame alive. Last October, the Babbar Khalsa bombed a packed cinema in the Punjabi city of Ludhiana, killing six. A BBC File on 4 investigation earlier this year unearthed current links between leading British-based Sikh militants and al-Qaeda.

The vast majority of the British Sikh community is peaceful and lawabiding. But recently Sikh militants have been regrouping here. In January, in unpleasant scenes of physical violence, they attempted to take over London's biggest Sikh temple, in Southall. Dabinderjit Singh was present, though there is no suggestion he took part in the violence. A temple in Leicester was revealed to have been running a martyrs' fund. A leading expert on the Sikh community, Professor Gurharpal Singh from Birmingham University, told File on 4 the Sikh community was "at a turning point".