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Statement of Devinder Singh Duggal, Custodian of the Sikh Reference Library at the Harminder Sahib:-

“During those three days more than 4000 people must have been killed there. Out of them more than 90%were pilgrims who had come on the occasion of the death anniversary of the 5th Sikh Guru and they could not go because of the curfew. Among them were mostly women, children and old people. I know of several Sikh young men being accosted on the way, their hands being ties behind their backs and then being shot in the temple complex. I know about 60 to 70 people being killed like that.
I know of some boys who were captured and taken to camps where they were denied water for more than 50 hours and died of thirst.

It was extremely hot in those days. Where I was staying, more than 50 persons were caught in one place. A stage came when only 1 jug of water was left with us. Children were asking for water again and again. The elders were suppressing their thirst to meet the needs of the children. A stage came when we just put a small amount of water to our lips to save ourselves. The situation got so bad that some children almost breathed their last. These people who had been deprived of water for 32 hours before,were denied for another 50 hours in the camps and it was there that many died,crying for water.”

The Tarkunde report stated that the number of those killed was between 8 and 10 thousand. One resident of Amritsar gave an eyewitness account to the editor of the Sikh Messenger, a British
publication. Parts of that account are reproduced as follows:-

“On Friday 1st June, I went to my bank Chowak Fawara,some 300 yards from our home on the edge of the Harminder Sahib. We were to leave for Delhi on the 4th June and fly to London on the 9th. As I walked the short distance to the bank, I saw that the BSF and CRP (para-military)fortifications, previously set up on the taller buildings, had been visibly strengthened. As I entered the bank, a bare foot Sikh cycle rickshaw boy was being beaten mercilessly by a policeman with a lathi; it was not an uncommon site.

It was soon after midday,12:35 pm,when we first heard firing. I was about to leave the bank, but changed my mind as the firing grew in intensity …I had to walk an estimated 3-4 miles through side streets to get there (home). Frequently, I was stopped by the paramilitary, who asked my business in menacing and frightening terms in comparison to previous curfews which had been comparatively lax. Sometimes they accepted the truth, that I was an old man trying to get to the safety of his own home. Sometimes they sent me back, forcing me to take a circuitous route. On several occasions I was told that I would have been shot if I were a younger man. Although the streets were almost deserted, there were still a number of Hindus going about unchallenged ….He (a Hindu fruit seller)said that police at the end of the street were particularly brutal and had already shot and beaten several Sikhs. He pointed me to a tiny side street and I eventually reached the comparative safety of my own home. …Water had by now been cut off and no more was to flow through the taps for the next 8 days..…

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