The assassination was motivated by Operation Blue Star which was carried out starting on 3 June 1984, the military action against the Sikh "Golden Temple" in Amritsar at Sikhism's holiest shrine.
Brahma Chellaney, who was then the South Asia correspondent of the Associated Press, was the only foreign reporter who managed to stay on in Amritsar despite the media blackout.
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Tully's first book on India Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle (1985) was co-authored with his colleague in BBC Delhi, Satish Jacob; the book dealt with the events leading up to Operation Blue Star, the Indian army's attack on Sikh extremists in the Golden Temple at Amritsar.
Another cause for the formation of the Punjab Rights Forum was in response to the crackdown on members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), including the party's president, Simranjit Singh Mann and activists of the Dal Khalsa following a "Genocide Remembrance Parade" that had been carried out through the streets of Amritsar on June 5 in remembrance of those Sikh civilians and terrorists that had been slain by the Indian army during Operation Blue Star.