1986 Muktsar bus massacre

1986 Muktsar bus massacre was a massacre of 14 Hindu and one Sikh bus-passenger by Khalistani militants. It occurred on 25 July 1986, when a bus was attacked by militants in which 15 people were shot dead in Muktsar in the northern state of Punjab, India.

Los Angeles Times reported that three men had boarded an express bus going from Muktsar, located in the erstwhile Faridkot district in the western Punjab to its destination Chandigarh. After travelling for approximately 10 miles after Muktsar, at a railway crossing the bus stopped and a fourth person boarded it. The four men started waving their weapons which included pistols and Sten guns, and ordered the ladies, children and people of the Sikh religion, who were profiled by their identification symbols turbans and long beards, to get down from the bus. The four men started shooting the remaining Hindu passengers still on the bus. It was reported that the passengers who were killed were all men belonging to the Hindu religion except one man, who was a Sikh with shaved beard. The number of injured passengers was seven. One of the injured man named Surjit Singh was another Sikh in the bus with shaved beard. Surjit was shot in the head and lost his vision but survived. His wife reportedly pleaded with the terrorists to spare them since they were Jat Sikhs as well, but she was ignored.

The separation of the passengers on religious grounds and the subsequent massacre of 14 Hindus, suggested that the massacre was a part of Sikh separatist Khalistan movement's campaign designed to divide the communities of Sikh and the Hindus.

In bus attack was a major terrorist incident in Punjab during the year 1986, worst being the 1986 Hoshiarpur Bus massacre. Los Angeles Times called the massacre as "one of the worst against the Hindu community during the more than five years" since that the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement had become active in Punjab. The state of Punjab had a Sikh population of 9 million and Hindu population of 7 million.